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Mutton, Leg of, Braised
This joint might be introduced to our readers under a variety of names; such as Leg of Mutton a la Napolitaine, a la Provencale, a la Bretonne, a la Soubise, and a separate recipe given for each, but as it is generally called after some sauce or garnish, we give a recipe for the braising alone:--Procure a small leg of mutton, cut off the knuckle end, and trim away unnecessary fat. Lard it with narrow strips of bacon which have been well seasoned with pepper. Line a braising-pan or stewpan with slices of bacon, and lay in the mutton, with more slices of bacon on the top. Add four carrots, two turnips, two middle-sized onions, each stuck with two cloves, a stick of celery, two blades of mace, and a few peppercorns, with enough weak stock to cover all. Stew gently for three hours, then reduce the stock by rapid boiling, and brown the meat in the oven, using a little of the stock with what flows from the meat to baste, and when glazed of a light colour serve with the sauce poured over it. A leg of mutton braised as above may be garnished with glazed carrots and onions, or a la Napolitaine, with boiled macaroni in the dish, and Neapolitan sauce over and around the macaroni; or a la Provencale, with the sauce of the same name, and a garnish of mushrooms glazed, etc. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A plain braise dressed up by whatever sauce and garnish you attach to it. The technique is sound and translates directly; the main adjustments are the cut, the fat, and the oven.
- The jointA "small leg of mutton" here means roughly 5-6 lb from a mature sheep. True mutton is scarce outside halal butchers and specialist farms; a leg of hogget or a 4-5 lb leg of lamb behaves the same way, but lamb will be tender well before three hours.
- Timing, revisedThree hours of gentle stewing suits mutton. A lamb leg is done at about 2 to 2 1/2 hours at a bare tremble; check for a fork sliding in with no resistance rather than watching the clock. Boiling rather than simmering will tighten the meat and cloud the stock.
- LardingThreading strips of seasoned bacon fat through the meat with a larding needle compensates for a lean joint. Without a needle, cut deep slits with a thin knife and push the strips in, or skip it entirely and rely on the bacon lining the pan.
- BaconVictorian bacon was generally fatter, and more often dry-salted, than the thin wet-cured rashers sold now. Use unsmoked streaky bacon, pancetta, or plain pork fatback; smoked bacon will dominate the sauce.
- Weak stockA light, unsalted or barely salted broth. It is reduced hard at the end, so anything strongly seasoned at the start becomes oversalted at the finish. Water with a veal or chicken bone will do.
- Blades of maceMace is the lacy covering of the nutmeg; a "blade" is one dried piece. Two blades are somewhere in the region of an eighth to a quarter teaspoon of ground mace, though equivalences vary; ground mace loses its aroma quickly, so add it late.
- Browning and glazingThe recipe gives no temperature. A hot oven, in the region of 425-450F, with frequent basting from the reduced liquor until the surface takes on a lacquered shine, will do the job. Ten to fifteen minutes is usually enough; longer and the exterior dries.
- The reductionStrain the cooking liquid, skim the fat hard, then boil it down until it coats a spoon. This syrupy stock is both the basting glaze and the base of whichever sauce the garnish calls for.
- YieldThe original gives six or seven servings, which holds for a 5 lb joint. The vegetables cooked in the braise are flavouring only and are usually discarded; the garnish carrots and onions are cooked separately and glazed.
Braising a leg of mutton and then naming the finished dish after its sauce was standard practice in the French-influenced kitchens that Cassell's was writing for, and the compiler's shortcut here, giving one method and listing the variations, is a fair reflection of how professional cookery worked: the joint was the constant, the garnish was the menu. Soubise means onion, Bretonne points to haricot beans, Napolitaine to macaroni and tomato, and Provencale to garlic, tomato and mushroom. Mutton was one of the staple red meats of the British table for most of the nineteenth century, cheaper and more strongly flavoured than lamb, and slow moist cooking of this kind was the usual answer to a leg from an older animal. The taste for mutton fell away sharply in the twentieth century as sheep came to be slaughtered younger.