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Mutton Collops
Shred two or three shallots, a sprig or two of parsley, and a small bunch of savoury herbs. Take a few thin slices from the leg or loin of mutton, as underdone as possible, and of equal sizes, sprinkle them with the chopped herbs, salt, pepper, and a little pounded mace; fry the collops slightly in butter, about two ounces, add a good cup of gravy, a piece of butter kneaded with a dessert-spoonful of flour, some chopped capers drained from their vinegar, or a little lemon-juice. Simmer for a few minutes, and serve quickly when done. Chopped gherkins may be used instead of capers. Sufficient, one pound and a half of meat for four persons.
A quick reheat dish for slices of rare roast mutton, built around a small pan sauce. The hinge is that the meat is already cooked: it goes into the butter only long enough to colour, then into the sauce for a few minutes at a bare simmer.
- "Collops"An old English word for thin slices or escalopes of meat, cut across the grain. Aim for slices about 1/4 in thick and roughly equal in size so they heat at the same rate.
- "As underdone as possible"This means leftovers from a rare roast leg or loin, not raw meat. The point is that the slices finish cooking in the sauce; slices from a well-done joint will turn dry and stringy no matter how gently you treat them.
- MuttonMutton is sheep over two years old, strong-flavoured and now sold mainly by specialist butchers. Cold rare roast leg of lamb behaves the same way in the pan, though the flavour is milder and needs less mace to balance it.
- A bunch of savoury herbsThyme and marjoram, sometimes with a bay leaf, is the usual reading of the phrase; chopped fine here rather than tied, since the recipe says to shred them and sprinkle them over. A teaspoon of the mixed leaves is enough for a pound and a half of meat.
- Pounded maceThe outer covering of nutmeg, sold today as blades or ground. A pinch of ground mace, no more than 1/8 teaspoon; it is more floral and less sweet than nutmeg and will dominate if overdone.
- A good cup of gravyBrown gravy or meat stock, about 8 fl oz. Cold jelly from under the roast dripping, melted, would serve well here.
- Butter kneaded with flourBeurre manie: about 1/2 oz butter worked to a paste with the dessert-spoonful of flour the recipe calls for, roughly two teaspoons. Add it in small pieces so it disperses rather than lumping.
- TimingThree to four minutes at a low simmer is enough to heat the slices through and let the flour cook out. Longer and the collops tighten and squeak.
- Capers and gherkinsDrain the capers well, as the recipe directs; their vinegar would thin and sharpen the sauce. Lemon juice is the alternative given.
- YieldAs stated, 1 1/2 lb of meat for four.
"Collop" is one of the oldest cooking words still in occasional English use, recorded from the medieval period and surviving in Collop Monday, the day before Shrove Tuesday, when the household's remaining meat was eaten up before Lent. That thrift is broadly what this recipe is for: it belongs to the large class of Victorian rechauffe dishes that turned the remains of a Sunday roast into something presentable for a weeknight. Mutton was the everyday roasting meat of nineteenth-century Britain, more common than lamb, and its strong flavour is likely why the sauce here leans on sharp things -- capers, gherkins, lemon -- and on mace, a spice long associated in English cookery with mutton and veal.