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Haunch of Venison or Mutton
This is the leg and loin undivided, or, as more commonly called, the hind quarter.
The butcher should split the whirl-bone, disjoint the backbone, and split the ribs in the flank. The rump-bone and aitch-bone may be removed before cooking. Place it on the platter with the loin or backbone nearest the carver. Separate the leg from the loin; this is a difficult joint to divide when the bones have not been removed, but it can be done with practice. When the leg has been taken off, carve that as directed on page 19. Carve the loin by first cutting off the flank and dividing it, then divide between each rib in the loin, or cut long slices parallel with the backbone, in the same way as directed for a saddle of mutton. Some English authorities recommend cutting perpendicularly through the thickest part of the leg near the knuckle, and then cutting across at right angles with this first cut, in long thin slices, the entire length of the joint; the slices are then separated from the bone and divided as desired. When carved in this way the loin and leg are not divided. This is not so economical as the first method.
LOIN OF MUTTON, LAMB, VEAL, PORK, OR VENISON.
These should always be divided at the joints in the backbone by the butcher; then it is an easy matter to separate the ribs, serving one to each person, with a portion of the kidney and fat if desired. But if the butcher neglect to do this, and you have no cleaver with which to do it, it is better to cut slices down to the ribs parallel with the backbone, as directed in the saddle of mutton, than to suffer the annoyance of hacking at the joints. Before cooking a loin of pork, gash through the fat between the ribs; this will give more of the crisp fat, and will aid in separating the ribs.
A whole hind quarter, leg and loin undivided, which is about as large as domestic carving ever got. The page’s first instruction is not to the carver but to the butcher.
- Half the work happens at the shopThe butcher should split the whirl-bone, disjoint the backbone, and split the ribs in the flank. None of these requests will be expected at a counter now, but a real butcher will do all of them if you say what you intend to carve. Everything hard about this joint is hard because somebody skipped these cuts.
- A haunch will not fit your ovenLeg and loin in one piece is a very large thing, and it has to be ordered from a game dealer or a butcher well in advance. The practical version of this page is the leg alone, which is why the text sends you elsewhere for it the moment the two are separated.
- Whirl-bone and aitch-boneThe hip socket and the pelvic bone. The words have gone and the bones have not, and they are exactly why the leg is difficult to part from the loin. The page is honest about it: this is a difficult joint to divide when the bones have not been removed, but it can be done with practice.
- Two schools, and the book picks oneSome English authorities, it says, cut down through the thick of the leg and then across at right angles, taking long slices the length of the joint without ever dividing leg from loin. The page prefers dividing first, on the ground that the other method is not so economical. Yield decides, not appearance.
- One instruction, two very different meatsMutton and venison are treated as interchangeable here because the skeleton is the same, but the meat is not: a haunch of mutton is thickly covered in fat that bastes it, and venison has almost none. The carving holds for both. The cooking cannot, and a venison haunch given mutton timings will be ruined.
- Score the fat on a loin of pork before it goes inGash through the fat between the ribs; this will give more of the crisp fat, and will aid in separating the ribs. Two benefits from one cut made before cooking, and advice still rarely given. It applies to any fatty loin, not only pork.
The tone of this page is worth more than its anatomy. The author assumes an imperfect shop and a kitchen that may be short of equipment: have the butcher do this, and if the butcher neglect to do this, and you have no cleaver with which to do it, here is what to do instead. The fallback is to cut long slices along the bone rather than attempt the joints, and the reason given is plain dislike of the alternative — better that than suffer the annoyance of hacking at the joints. That principle, work along the bone and never try to cut through it, is the most useful sentence in the book, and it was arrived at by someone who had evidently stood at a table and hacked.