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HARICOT MUTTON (a la Bourgeoise)
Divide three pounds of the neck or breast of mutton into neat cutlets, and fry them in a little dripping till they are lightly browned. Pour over them a pint and a half of boiling stock, or, failing this, water, and add a large onion, stuck with three or four cloves, a bunch of parsley, and three or four peppercorns. Simmer gently for three-quarters of an hour. Strain the gravy, put it back into the saucepan, and with it a dozen turnips cut into pieces, and already stewed in a little gravy. Serve the turnips in the same dish with the mutton and the gravy. If preferred, potatoes may be substituted for the turnips, as in HARICOT, NORMANDY, but they must be kept whole, or the appearance of the dish will be spoilt. Probable cost, 2s. 10d. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A plain braise of mutton and root vegetables, and one where the original timing is the weak point. Mutton neck and breast are both collagen-heavy cuts that need far longer than the three-quarters of an hour given here.
- The simmer is too shortNeck and breast of mutton are tough, well-worked cuts; 45 minutes leaves them chewy. Expect 1½ to 2½ hours at a bare simmer, until the meat pulls easily from the bone. A 150C/300F oven, lid on, does the job more evenly than a burner.
- Mutton and lambMutton is sheep over two years old, still sold by some butchers and halal shops but rare in supermarkets. Lamb neck or breast substitutes directly and will be tender an hour sooner; the flavour is milder and needs a firmer hand with the pepper.
- A pint and a halfAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, so this is 30 fl oz — about 3½ US cups, or 850 ml. It should come roughly level with the meat, not drown it.
- DrippingUsually beef dripping, a common frying fat of the period. Any neutral oil or a spoonful of the mutton's own trimmed fat will brown the cutlets as well.
- Degrease the strained gravyBreast especially throws a good deal of fat. The recipe says only to strain, but it is worth skimming as well: let the liquid settle a few minutes and lift the fat off, or chill it and lift the cap. Skipping this is what makes the dish greasy.
- A dozen turnipsVictorian turnips were the small white sort, so a dozen probably means something in the range of 1½ to 2 lb (700-900 g). Do not use a dozen modern swedes. They are pre-stewed separately here so their liquid does not muddy the gravy.
- No thickening is givenThe gravy is meant to be light rather than floury. If it seems thin after skimming, reduce it hard for a few minutes before returning the turnips; a dusting of flour over the cutlets as they brown is the period alternative.
- YieldSix to eight, as stated, but that assumes bread and other dishes alongside. Three pounds of bone-in neck feeds four generously as a main course.
The name misleads almost every modern reader: there are no haricot beans in a haricot of mutton. The term is generally traced to the Old French harigoter, to cut up or cut into pieces, and the dish is defined by its cutlets and its root vegetables rather than by any legume — the coincidence with the bean's name came later and has confused cooks ever since. À la bourgeoise signals the plain household treatment: onion stuck with cloves, a bunch of parsley, a few peppercorns, no wine and no elaborate garnish. Cassell's gives a probable cost of 2s. 10d. for a dish feeding six or eight, which places it squarely among the economical family dinners the dictionary was built around; neck and breast were the cheap ends of the sheep, and turnips were available and cheap through the whole English winter. The note that potatoes must be kept whole "or the appearance of the dish will be spoilt" is a reminder that even thrifty Victorian cooking was expected to come to the table looking deliberate.