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Mutton, Leg of, with Forcemeat
This savoury dish is very common in Australia. A leg of mutton is carefully boned so as not to injure the skin, the fat is pared off, and about a pound of the mutton, with an equal quantity of bacon, minced together. A seasoning of garlic, onions, and pickles is then given to it, and the mince is ready; or, it is sometimes prepared simply seasoned with pepper, salt, and a little chopped parsley, if to be eaten by ladies or children. The hollow made by cutting out the bone, etc., is filled with the mince, and the skin secured over the opening to the underside. Meanwhile, a gravy is made by boiling the bone and trimmings with as much veal broth or water as will be necessary to stew the leg; vegetables are added, an onion and a carrot sliced, a small bunch of parsley, with a seasoning of pepper and salt. Lay slices of bacon over the top of the leg, and stew gently, with the lid of the pan closed, for three hours and a half or more. When done, strain the gravy, boil it rapidly, and reduce it to a glaze, with which glaze the meat, or thicken the gravy simply with browned flour, and serve it with the meat. French beans, boiled in the usual manner, drained, and then warmed up in some of the gravy, may be laid under and around the leg of mutton. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for seven or eight persons.
A boned, stuffed leg of mutton braised slowly in its own bone broth. The method is sound; the main adjustments are meat supply, vessel size and a realistic view of the cooking time.
- Mutton versus lambMutton means sheep over about two years old, with darker, stronger meat and firmer connective tissue. A leg of lamb will substitute but is smaller and much more tender, so check for doneness well before the stated time rather than braising it to shreds.
- Boning the legThis is the hinge of the dish: the leg is tunnel-boned so the skin and outer muscle stay intact and form a pouch. A butcher will do it on request. If the skin tears, the forcemeat escapes into the gravy and the joint collapses when carved.
- The forcemeat quantitiesA pound of mutton trimmed from the joint plus a pound of bacon makes roughly 2 lb of stuffing, which is generous. Mince or pulse it coarsely rather than to a paste, and season firmly, since the flavour is diluted by the surrounding meat.
- Securing the jointThe instruction to secure the skin "over the opening to the underside" means sewing or trussing the cavity closed and laying that seam downward in the pan. Butcher's twine at close intervals is easier than needle and thread and holds through three hours of stewing.
- Pan and liquidYou need a lidded pan or Dutch oven that takes the leg with the bones and vegetables and enough veal stock or water to come partway up. This is a braise, not a boil; the joint need not be submerged, and a piece of parchment under the lid keeps the exposed top moist.
- Time and temperatureThree and a half hours at a bare simmer, around 180-190F in the liquid; the book gives no oven, but if you prefer to braise in one, use a low setting that just holds the liquid at a bare simmer. Judge by feel, not the clock: the leg is done when a skewer meets no resistance and the internal temperature of the stuffing has passed 165F.
- Reducing to a glazeStraining and boiling the gravy down to a glaze concentrates the salt from the bacon considerably. Taste as it reduces and hold back on seasoning the braising liquid at the start.
- Browned flourThe alternative thickening is flour toasted dry in a pan until nut-brown, then whisked into the strained gravy. It thickens less per spoonful than raw flour and gives colour and a slightly roasted flavour.
- YieldSeven or eight portions as the book says, from a leg of the usual size plus its two pounds of stuffing. The French beans are warmed through in a ladleful of the gravy, not cooked in it.
Cassell's flags this as "very common in Australia", which places it in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Australian sheep runs were producing mutton in quantities far beyond what the colonial population could eat and before refrigerated shipping made regular export to Britain practical - the first successful frozen shipments arrived at the turn of the 1880s. In that setting a cheap, heavy leg of mutton was an everyday joint rather than a treat, and boning and stuffing it was a way of stretching and improving a plain cut: the forcemeat adds fat from the bacon, and the bones go straight into the braising liquid so nothing is wasted. The two seasonings offered are suggestive of Victorian assumptions - garlic, onions and pickles in the fuller version, pepper, salt and parsley "if to be eaten by ladies or children". The final glaze, made by reducing the strained stewing liquor until it coats the meat, is straightforward classical French technique arriving in a domestic British dictionary of cookery.