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MUTTON CUTLETS (au Naturel)
These cutlets may be taken either from the leg or from the ribs. If from the ribs, cut off all superfluous fat, and when well trimmed dip each one into clarified butter, cover with bread-crumbs seasoned with pepper and salt, and or oil just long enough to heat them through; then dip them again into the butter, to be again bread-crumbed, and the cooking completed. Lay them before the fire on white paper, and press slightly with another paper over them. Serve with a sauce made as follows. Stew in half a pint of brown gravy a handful of button mushrooms, chopped, a sprig of parsley, half a bay-leaf, and the same of shallot, shredded finely; thicken with butter rolled in flour; take out the bay-leaf, and add more salt and pepper if required. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient, two pounds for four or five persons.
A double-breaded mutton cutlet, grilled rather than fried, with a quick mushroom and shallot gravy. The printed text has a typesetting fault — the phrase "and or oil just long enough to heat them through" is a garbled instruction to broil (grill) the crumbed cutlets briefly before the second coating of butter and crumbs.
- The hinge: two coats, two cookingsThe method appears to be butter, crumbs, a short spell at the fire to set and heat through, then butter and crumbs again to finish cooking. On this reading the first pass is not meant to brown the meat but to fix the crust so the second coat has something to cling to.
- "Before the fire" means the broiler"Before the fire" means radiant heat -- The cutlets were finished by the heat of an open hearth; the paper beneath them suggests they were set in front of the fire rather than laid on a gridiron over it. Use an overhead broiler or a very hot ridged grill pan, turning once. Roughly 3-4 minutes a side for a 3/4-inch cutlet gives medium; the crumbs will be dark before the interior overcooks.
- Mutton and lambMutton is sheep over about two years old — stronger, leaner, coarser in grain, and rare in most shops now. Rib cutlets from lamb are the practical substitute and cook faster; leg cutlets (thick rounds cut across the leg) need a little longer and benefit from being pounded to even thickness.
- Clarified butterWhole butter would burn and the milk solids would speckle the crumbs. Melt butter gently, skim the foam, and pour off the clear fat from the milky residue. Ghee works identically and is easier to buy.
- Half a pint of gravyAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1 1/4 US cups. "Brown gravy" here is a meat stock already coloured and lightly thickened; a good reduced beef or lamb stock does the job. Stew the mushrooms, parsley, bay and shallot in it for 8-10 minutes before thickening.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié — equal parts soft butter and flour kneaded to a paste, dropped into the simmering gravy in small pieces and whisked in. Add it off the boil and let it barely simmer a minute or two, or the sauce tastes of raw flour.
- The paper pressWhite paper was laid under the cutlets and another pressed lightly over them; the text does not say why, though blotting fat and shielding the crumbs from scorching are the likely reasons. Baking parchment does the same; ordinary printed paper does not belong near food.
- YieldAs the book says, two pounds of cutlets serves four to five. That is two rib cutlets a person, or one thick leg cutlet.
Cassell's use of "au naturel" for cutlets reflects the French-derived hierarchy that ran through Victorian professional cookery: au naturel is generally taken to signal a relatively plain treatment, the meat crumbed and grilled rather than braised, larded or masked in a compound sauce — though the accompanying made sauce here shows how loosely the term could sit. That mutton rather than lamb is assumed tells you something about the British meat trade of the period, in which the mature carcass was the ordinary joint. The mushroom, shallot, parsley and bay gravy is essentially a simplified sauce aux champignons.