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Lamb Chops and Potatoes
Egg and bread-crumb some neatly-trimmed lamb chops, and fry them in the usual way (see LAMB CHOPS, FRIED). For half a dozen chops prepare a pound and a half of potatoes. Boil and drain them, and beat them up with a fork, then add a quarter of a pint of boiling broth, or, failing this, milk. Beat well until quite smooth, pass the potatoes through a sieve, put them into a saucepan with two ounces of fresh butter, and stir briskly until they are quite hot. Pile the potatoes high in the centre of a hot dish, and place the chops round them in an upright position, one overlapping the other. Time, ten or fifteen minutes to fry the chops; forty minutes to prepare the potatoes. Probable cost of chops, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A plated dish rather than a composed bake: crumbed chops stood on end around a mound of enriched mashed potato. The potato is the part that rewards care.
- The hinge: sieve, don't processPassing the beaten potato through a sieve, or a ricer, is what gives the smooth, pipeable texture the presentation depends on. A food processor or blender will burst the starch cells and turn the whole thing to glue.
- A quarter of a pintIn an English book of this period that is 5 imperial fluid ounces, roughly 140 ml or a generous half cup. Add it hot and add it gradually; 1 1/2 lb of potatoes may take slightly less depending on how dry they are.
- Potato choiceUse a floury variety such as russet, Maris Piper or King Edward. Waxy salad potatoes will not beat up smooth and will resist the sieve.
- Frying the chopsEgg-and-crumb means beaten egg then fine dry breadcrumbs, often preceded by a dusting of seasoned flour; the recipe itself specifies neither the fat nor the heat, referring the reader to its LAMB CHOPS, FRIED entry. Shallow-frying over moderate heat lets the crumb colour as the meat cooks. Ten to fifteen minutes suits thick loin or chump chops; thin cutlets will be done in five or six.
- DonenessLamb chops are best pulled at 130-135F internal for pink, up to 145F for medium. Ten to fifteen minutes is a long time for a thin modern chop, so judge by the meat rather than following the timing blindly.
- Broth over milkThe recipe's preference is correct: a well-made lamb or veal stock gives the potato far more character than milk. Reduce a light stock slightly before adding so it does not thin the purée.
- AssemblyEverything must be hot at once. Warm the serving dish, and finish the potato last: the recipe has it stirred briskly in the saucepan with the 2 oz butter until quite hot. Then stand the chops upright against the mound so each overlaps the next.
- YieldSix chops and 1 1/2 lb of potatoes feeds three or four as written, with a green vegetable alongside.
This is a dressed-up version of chops and mash, and its whole point is the presentation: the chops then standing round a tall central mound in a ring was a familiar arrangement of the period, borrowed from French practice, where such a ring is often described as en couronne. The recipe demonstrates two techniques at once: the egg-and-crumb coating, and the sieved potato purée enriched with butter and stock, which is essentially the pommes purée of the professional kitchen scaled to a household. The price note, one shilling a pound for chops, is a reminder of how these dictionaries doubled as budgeting tools.