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Chops, Broiled
Mutton is the meat for chops, though lamb and pork also furnish excellent ones. A variety of dishes may be made from them, and they may be served with all sorts of sauces and vegetables. They are often cut from the best end of the neck and the fillet of the leg, but are best when taken from the middle of the loin. They should be cut not less than half an inch thick, and not over fat; if taken from the neck, the bones should be shortened. To broil chops trim them neatly, remove nearly all the fat, which may be rendered and made into good dripping, and pepper them slightly. Have a clear fire made of cinders. Make the gridiron hot, and rub it well with mutton suet. Put the chops upon it and place it slanting to prevent the fat dropping on the fire, and causing a smoke. If a blaze should arise, remove the gridiron for a moment, and strew a handful of salt over the fire. Turn the chops often till they are done, which will be in about eight minutes. Place them on a hot dish with a piece of butter about the size of a nut under each, and send mushroom ketchup to table with them. French cooks pepper and salt them, and brush some clarified butter over them before broiling, and this tends to keep in the juices. If it can be done, they are better sent to table one at a time, as they are broiled. Probable cost, 1s. to 1s. 2d. per pound.
A method rather than a formula: the instructions assume a coal grate and a hand-held gridiron, both of which translate directly to a charcoal grill or a ridged cast-iron pan.
- The cut"Middle of the loin" is the loin chop, still the best broiling chop; "best end of the neck" is the rack, sold now as cutlets. "Shortening the bones" means trimming the rib bone back to the eye of meat, as with a French-trimmed cutlet.
- Thickness matters more than anything elseHalf an inch is the stated minimum, and at that thickness eight minutes over a fierce fire will take the meat well past pink. For a chop cut a good inch thick, 3-4 minutes a side gives about 130F internal for medium-rare lamb; pork chops want 145F and a short rest.
- "A clear fire made of cinders"This means coal burnt down to glowing embers with no flame or smoke — the Victorian equivalent of charcoal that has ashed over. A gas broiler or a smoking-hot ridged pan will do the same work; what you cannot substitute is a lively flame licking the meat.
- Greasing the grillRubbing the hot gridiron with mutton suet is the period version of oiling the grate. Any high-smoke-point fat works, though suet or beef dripping gives the closest flavour.
- Flare-upsTilting the gridiron and throwing salt on the fire are both anti-flare measures. On a modern grill, move the chops to a cooler zone rather than dousing the coals.
- Butter "the size of a nut"A small knob; the recipe gives no weight, and 'nut' was an elastic measure. It melts into the resting juices and functions as the sauce; a maître d'hôtel butter with parsley and lemon is a related Victorian treatment.
- Mushroom ketchupA thin, dark, salty mushroom liquor, not a tomato sauce — closer to Worcestershire or a mushroom soy in effect. Bottled versions are still made, and it is worth having if you cook much plain grilled meat.
- YieldOne loin chop per person as a light course, two for a main. The recipe prefers each chop sent to table as it comes off the fire; where that is impractical, rest them a few minutes on a warm dish.
Mutton -- meat from a sheep over about two years old -- was the default in nineteenth-century Britain, stronger and fattier than the young lamb that displaced it in the twentieth century, and the instruction to render the trimmed fat into dripping shows a kitchen where little edible was thrown away. The nod to "French cooks" who pepper, salt and brush clarified butter over the chops before broiling reflects the period's borrowing from French practice, where sealing the surface in fat was held to keep the juices in; the reasoning is dated but the practice is still sound. The quoted price of 1s. to 1s. 2d. a pound is given by the book itself.