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Mutton, Neck of, Browned
Boil as in preceding recipe, but not quite so long; finish by cooking the mutton before the fire, first covering it with a mixture of fine bread-crumbs, parsley, and sweet herbs, pepper, salt, and a little mushroom powder, cemented together with the beaten yolk of one or more eggs. When nicely browned, serve with half a pint of gravy thickened with a dessert-spoonful of browned flour, and add a table-spoonful of lemon-juice. Time, a quarter of an hour to the pound. Probable cost, 10d. per pound. Sufficient, four pounds for six or seven persons.
A two-stage treatment of a cheap, collagen-heavy joint: a gentle boil to make it tender, then a crumb crust set in front of a fire. The oven does the second stage as well as an open hearth did, provided the crust goes on while the meat is still hot.
- The preceding recipeThe boiled neck it refers to. Whatever its exact aromatics, bring the pot up slowly, keep it just below a simmer and skim carefully at the start; the resulting liquor is what you should be using for the gravy rather than water.
- Ignore the quarter-hour per poundOn the timing -- a quarter of an hour to the pound is the period's usual rate for boiling, and it is not clear whether the time given covers the boiling, the browning, or both. Neck is a collagen-heavy cut, so for a tender result simmer a 4 lb bone-in neck for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until a skewer meets no resistance, then pull it out while it still holds together for browning.
- "Before the fire" means high, dry, direct heatSet the crumbed joint on a rack in a roasting tin in an oven at 425F for 15 to 20 minutes, or finish it under a broiler, turning to colour all faces. Press the crumb mixture on while the meat is hot and still damp so the egg sets against it.
- Mushroom powderDried mushrooms ground to a powder in a spice grinder; a teaspoon is enough for a 4 lb joint. The Victorian article was made from field mushrooms dried hard and pounded; dried porcini will stand in, though they are stronger and differently flavoured.
- Browned flourPlain flour toasted in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it smells nutty and turns the colour of weak tea. It thickens noticeably less than raw flour, so expect a light gravy rather than a sauce; a dessert-spoonful is about 2 teaspoons.
- Half a pint of gravyAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 284 ml, so a scant 1 1/4 US cups. Use the cooking liquor, degreased, and add the lemon juice off the heat at the end so it keeps its edge.
- Mutton or lambMutton is meat from a sheep over two years old and is rarely sold in supermarkets; a lamb neck or shoulder behaves the same way but cooks faster and tastes milder. If you do find mutton, allow the longer end of the simmering time.
- YieldThe stated four pounds for six or seven people assumes bone-in weight and a table with several other dishes on it. As a main course with vegetables, a 4 lb neck feeds four comfortably.
Neck of mutton was the joint of the thrifty Victorian household: cheap, fatty, full of connective tissue, and the source of the stock that turned into broth and barley soup the next day. Cassell's gives it repeatedly in variations, and this one solves the standing problem with boiled meat, which is that it looks and tastes pale. Crumbing a cooked joint with herbs and egg and colouring it at the fire is the same manoeuvre the period applied to boiled ham and to reheated leftovers, and the technique is essentially the crust on a rack of lamb persillade, arrived at from the other direction. Mushroom powder and browned flour both belong to a nineteenth-century larder built around keeping savoury depth on hand without refrigeration.