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Mutton, Leg of, Boiled
For boiling, this joint should not hang so long as for roasting. Two or three days will be enough if the colour is considered of importance. This and careful skimming will prevent the necessity for a floured cloth, which some inexperienced cooks resort to. Cut off the shankbone, and, if necessary, wipe the joint with a damp cloth. Put it into a large oval stewpan with as much boiling water as will cover it. When restored to its boiling state, skim the surface clean, and draw the stewpan to the side of the fire to allow the contents to simmer until done. Allow for a leg of mutton of nine or ten pounds' weight, two and a half hours from the time it boils. Boil very young turnips for a garnish; these will take twenty minutes, but allow an hour for older ones, which are to be mashed. Place the turnips, which should be of equal size, round the dish, and send the mashed ones to table separately. Melted butter, with capers added, should accompany the dish. The liquor from the boiling may be converted into good soup at a trifling expense. Time, about twenty minutes to each pound. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for nine or ten persons.
A straightforward large-joint boil, but two things in it are not what a modern reader will assume: the meat and the "melted butter."
- Simmer, never boilThe hinge of the dish. The pan is brought to the boil once, skimmed, then drawn to the side so the water only shivers, around 180-190F. A rolling boil for two and a half hours will give you tight, stringy mutton and a cloudy broth.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep of a year or more, commonly reckoned over two years, darker and stronger-flavoured. Most butchers now sell lamb; a leg of lamb is usually 5-7 lb rather than 9-10, so at the stated twenty minutes per pound you are looking at roughly 1 hr 40 min to 2 hr 20 min. Mutton itself is worth seeking out for this and takes the full time happily.
- "Melted butter" is a sauceIn Victorian usage melted butter means a white sauce of butter, flour and water or stock, not simply butter run in a pan. Capers and a little of their vinegar are stirred in at the end. Poured butter alone will not do what the recipe intends.
- HangingThe two or three days' hanging refers to a butcher's cold larder and applies to a whole undressed joint. Buy meat that has already been aged; do not attempt to hang it at home.
- The floured clothWrapping the joint in a floured cloth was a trick to keep the outside pale. The author's point is that shorter hanging plus careful skimming does the same job.
- TurnipsTwenty minutes suits small, young turnips cut to a uniform size; older, woodier ones genuinely do need long cooking before mashing. Test with a knife rather than trusting the clock.
- The cooking liquorSkim the fat once it has cooled and you have a decent light mutton broth. It is salty only if you salted the pot, so season the water lightly if you intend to use it for soup.
- Yield and costNine or ten portions from a 9-10 lb joint. The "1s. per pound" is a Victorian price and has no useful modern equivalent.
Boiled leg of mutton with caper sauce was one of the fixed points of the nineteenth-century English dinner table, plain enough for a family Sunday and respectable enough for company. The pairing with capers is generally traced to the older habit of serving sharp, briny sauces with strongly flavoured meats, in the same family as mint with lamb and onion sauce with rabbit; the acid cuts mutton fat, which sets hard and coats the palate. The technique is thrifty in the way Victorian household manuals prized: a broth left over that becomes the next day's soup. Mutton itself has largely disappeared from British and American butchers over the last century as sheep have been bred for quicker slaughter, which is why a recipe that once needed no explanation now does.