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Mutton, Loin of, Roasted
Follow the directions given for roast leg in every particular (see MUTTON, LEG OF, TO ROAST), but trim off all unnecessary fat, which may be used for a common suet crust. If the fat be not turned to account there is no more expensive joint than a loin of mutton. Cover the fat with paper until within a quarter of an hour of its being done, then remove. baste, and flour slightly, to get it frothed. ?These, a quarter of an hour to the pound. Probable cost, 10d. per pound. Sufficient, one chop for each person.
A cross-reference recipe: Cassell's assumes you have already read the entry for roast leg, and adds only what makes the loin different — the fat cap, and the fact that it is worth money. Two things need translating for a modern kitchen: the joint itself, and the timing, which was written for a spit before an open fire.
- Have the butcher chine itA loin is a rack of vertebrae with the eye of meat along the top. Unless the backbone is sawn through between each rib (chined), or removed entirely, the roast cannot be carved into the chops the recipe promises. Ask for this when ordering; the original assumes it has been done.
- Mutton is not lambMutton means sheep over two years old — darker, denser, considerably stronger in flavour, and increasingly rare outside halal and specialist butchers. A lamb loin substituted for it will cook faster and taste milder. If you do find mutton, it rewards a slightly lower oven and longer rest.
- A quarter of an hour to the poundThat is 15 minutes per pound, written at a period when roasting could still mean radiant heat before a fire rather than a closed oven. In a 375F oven it will run rare to medium-rare on lamb. Cook to internal temperature instead: 130–135F at the thickest part of the eye for pink, 145F for medium, 160F and above for well done, resting 15 minutes before carving.
- The paper over the fatPaper, often buttered in period practice though the recipe does not say so, tied or laid over the fat cap stops it scorching and drying as it roasts. Parchment does the same job. Removing it for the last quarter hour is what lets the fat colour.
- FrothingBaste, dust lightly with flour, and return to a hot oven, or put it under the grill for a few minutes, until the surface blisters and goes pale gold. It is a long-standing English roasting finish, done for appearance rather than flavour, and it burns quickly, so watch it.
- The trimmed fatTrimmed loin fat, chopped or shredded fine rather than rendered, serves as suet for a plain crust; a common modern ratio is one part shredded suet to two parts self-raising flour with cold water. The frugal logic is the whole point of the note about expense — untrimmed, you are paying joint prices for fat you throw away.
- Cost and yieldTenpence a pound is the book's figure for the joint as bought. "One chop for each person" means a whole loin of six to seven bones serves six or seven, though a modern appetite for a single thin chop is optimistic — allow two for a main course.
Cassell's belongs to an era when mutton was a staple of the English table, and the dictionary format means a dozen mutton entries cross-refer to one another rather than repeat the method. The loin sat awkwardly in the household budget: it carves into handsome chops, but a large proportion of its weight is fat, which is why the writer breaks the neutral tone to warn that it is the most expensive joint in the shop if the trimmings are wasted. The remedy offered — render the fat for suet crust — was standard economy in a kitchen where nothing left the larder unused. Mutton's near-disappearance from British and American butchers over the twentieth century is generally traced to the rise of faster-finished lamb breeds and a wartime and post-war association of mutton with poor, strong-tasting meat; the flavour this recipe was written for is now something of a rarity.