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Mutton, Loin of, Rolled
Ask the butcher to bone a well-hung joint, and remove unnecessary fat; lay it out flat, and season highly with allspice, cloves, mace, and pepper, reduced to powder. Next day cover the side on which the seasoning has been laid with a forcemeat as for veal, and roll the loin into a tight compact shape, which must be secured with a string. Roast it until half done, or bake it, as most convenient, but only brown it slightly, and remove the fat from the gravy when cold. Have ready a gravy made from boiling the bones, adding to it that which dripped; put the meat and gravy into a stewpan, and stew until tender. A few mushrooms or half a glassful of mushroom ketchup may be added while stewing: when done, put the meat unrolled on a dish; add a table-spoonful of baked flour, and pour the gravy over, salted to taste, and boiled. A loin of mutton boned, rolled, then roasted in the usual way is an excellent joint. Time to bake, an hour and a half; to stew and bake, three hours. Probable cost, 10d. per pound.
A two-stage joint: a boned loin is spiced, left overnight, stuffed, browned, then braised in stock made from its own bones. The instructions assume a cook who knows how to make forcemeat and browned flour, so those are where the gaps are.
- The joint itselfA whole boned loin of mutton is a special order at most butchers now; a boned, trimmed lamb loin or a boned shoulder of lamb of about 3-4 lb behaves the same way and is easier to find. "Well-hung" means dry-aged, which is the butcher's job, not yours.
- The hinge: brown lightly, then braiseThe recipe wants the joint roasted only "until half done" and "only brown it slightly", so the first stage sets colour and renders fat while leaving most of the cooking to the long moist stew; a fully roasted rolled loin will be dry and stringy by the end of three hours.
- Oven temperaturesThe original gives times but no temperatures (an hour and a half to bake; three hours to stew and bake). A hot oven, around 425F, for half an hour or so will give the light browning asked for; the stewing stage can be done on the stovetop at a bare simmer or in a low oven, covered, until a skewer slides in without resistance -- roughly the balance of the three hours.
- Forcemeat as for vealThe standard Victorian veal forcemeat is breadcrumbs, shredded suet or butter, chopped ham or bacon, parsley, lemon peel, grated nutmeg, and egg to bind. Something like 8 oz crumbs, 4 oz fat and one or two eggs would fill a loin of this size.
- Baked flourVictorian kitchens kept flour that had been dried and lightly browned in a slow oven, used as a thickener that would not taste raw. A tablespoon of it thickens the gravy loosely; if you have none, a beurre manie or a plain roux does the same job.
- Mushroom ketchupNot the tomato condiment. It is a thin, dark, salty mushroom extract, still sold by British specialists; 'half a glassful' is imprecise, somewhere between a couple of tablespoons and a scant 1/3 cup. Mushroom soy or a strong mushroom stock reduction stands in acceptably.
- Skimming and saltingThe direction to remove the fat "when cold" is a deliberate step, not a stray remark: chill the roasting juices so the fat sets and lifts off in a cake. Salt only at the very end, after the bone gravy has reduced, or the finished sauce will be sharp.
- "Put the meat unrolled on a dish"Probably means untrussed, with the string cut away, rather than opened out flat. Let it rest 15 minutes before slicing across the roll so each slice shows a spiral of forcemeat.
- YieldA loin of this size serves six to eight, with the gravy poured over rather than served separately.
Boning, spicing, stuffing and rolling a joint was one of the standard Victorian answers to mutton, a meat from an older animal with a strong flavour and a good deal of connective tissue that repaid slow moist cooking. The heavy hand with allspice, cloves and mace, and the overnight rest to let the spice penetrate, belongs to an older English tradition of "collared" and spiced meats that reaches back through the eighteenth century, when strong seasoning helped meat that had hung a long while. Mushroom ketchup, the bottled savoury flavouring of the period, was in use decades before tomato ketchup displaced it. The note on cost is a reminder of what Cassell's was for: it put a price on the joint for a middling household making something that looked like a company dish.