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MUTTON, LEG OF, BRAISED (another way)
Small lean mutton is particularly adapted to this mode of cooking. It may be larded and braised, or done without the larding. Put it into a braising-pan with slices of bacon over and under, so that the bottom of the pan shall be well lined. Between the mutton and bacon strew cut carrots, onions, sweet herbs, parsley, and a bay-leaf, also a bit of garlic, if liked, and pepper and salt. Moisten with half a pint or more of good meat gravy or broth, and allow a leg of six or seven pounds to stew nearly four hours. If stewed very gently the liquor will not have lost much in quantity. When the meat is done enough, strain, reduce the gravy by quick boiling, and serve in a tureen. Glaze the mutton, and send it to table garnished with onions, which should also be glazed, and white haricot beans boiled in good veal broth under the joint. A dozen peppercorns and four cloves, with a stick of celery, may be added to the braising-pan if a higher flavour is liked. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
MUTTON, LEG OF, OYSTERS WITH. (See OYSTERS WITH LEG OF MUTTON.)
A classic braise: a whole leg cooked slowly on a bed of bacon and aromatics, then glazed and served with beans. Nothing here is difficult, but the liquid quantity and the meat itself both need translating.
- The hinge: barely a simmerThe instruction "if stewed very gently the liquor will not have lost much in quantity" is the whole method. The recipe calls for half a pint or more -- an imperial half-pint being a little over a US cup -- so the meat largely steams rather than boils; a hard simmer risks scorching the vegetables and drying the joint. The recipe specifies neither a lid nor an oven, but in a modern kitchen a heavy covered pot in a low oven (around 300F) holds a gentle temperature more reliably than a burner.
- Half a pintAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, a little over a US cup. Use good unsalted stock and expect the bacon and vegetables to release more liquid as they go.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep over about two years old, now sold mainly by halal butchers and specialist farms. A 6-7 lb leg of lamb will substitute but is far more tender: check it at 2 to 2 1/2 hours rather than four, since lamb at four hours will collapse off the bone.
- LardingLarding means threading strips of pork fat through the lean meat with a larding needle, a technique built for the dry mutton of the period. It is optional here and rarely worth the trouble now; the bacon lining the pan does much the same job.
- Braising-panAny heavy pot with a well-fitting lid that the leg fits into snugly. An oval Dutch oven or a covered roasting pan works; a wide pan wastes liquid to evaporation.
- GlazingReduce part of the strained cooking liquor to a syrupy consistency and brush it over the meat and the onions. Period cooks used a stock reduced to a jelly kept on hand for the purpose.
- White haricot beansDried white beans such as cannellini or navy. Soak and cook them separately in broth as the recipe directs, and season them at the end; they are served under the joint.
- Yield and costSix or seven servings, as stated. The "1s. per pound" is a late-Victorian retail price and belongs to the book, not to your shopping.
Braising a whole leg in a sealed pot with bacon, root vegetables and a little strong stock is a French technique that English cookery books are generally said to have taken up in the nineteenth century, and Cassell's -- which ran through many methods for every joint -- gives it as one of several ways to treat a leg of mutton. The note that "small lean mutton is particularly adapted to this mode of cooking" is the practical point: older, leaner sheep were the ordinary meat of the British table well into the twentieth century, and long moist cooking, larding, and a glaze made from reduced stock were the standard defences against dryness. Mutton fell out of British favour after the Second World War, a decline often attributed to the reputation of tinned and mess-hall versions, which is why a recipe written for a common household joint now reads as a specialist one.