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Mutton Pie, Good
Make a seasoning of chopped parsley (about two table-spoonfuls), of powdered savoury herbs and a minced shallot, in equal proportions (a dessert-spoonful), or an onion shredded small (the shallot being omitted), with pepper and salt to taste. Cut from two to three pounds of neat chops from the loin or neck of mutton, weighed after the bone and much of the fat have been removed; put them, well covered with the above seasoning, into a pie-dish. Cut three kidneys into halves, and each half into two parts, distribute them equally amongst the meat, pour in half a pint of veal broth or water, and bake with a puff or good suet crust; the latter will be found very suitable if eaten hot. A table-spoonful of ketchup and two of port wine may be added to the gravy, but there should in that case be less water. Time, about an hour and three-quarters to bake. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A plain Victorian meat pie with no pastry recipe and no oven setting, both of which the period cook was assumed to know. The main adjustments concern the meat itself and the two ingredients whose names have shifted meaning.
- Oven temperatureBake at 400F for the first 20 minutes to set and lift the crust, then drop to 325-350F for the remainder. A steady 350F throughout works for suet crust, which does not depend on a hot blast.
- Mutton versus lambGenuine mutton is sheep over two years old and needs the full one and three-quarter hours or more. Supermarket lamb loin or neck chops will be tender in about an hour and a quarter; neck (scrag or middle neck) is the better choice either way, as loin chops can dry out.
- "Half a pint" of brothAn Imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1 1/4 US cups. If you add the port and ketchup, cut the liquid to roughly 6 fl oz so the filling does not flood the crust.
- KetchupIn a British kitchen of this period this most often means mushroom or walnut ketchup, a thin dark savoury condiment, though bottled tomato ketchup was also available by the end of the century. Tomato ketchup will make the gravy sweet; use mushroom ketchup, or a teaspoon of soy or Worcestershire sauce instead.
- Powdered savoury herbsDried savoury herbs ground fine, commonly thyme, marjoram, sage and savory, whether home-dried or bought as a mix. A dessertspoonful is about two teaspoons of dried mixed herbs.
- The kidneysThree lamb kidneys, halved and each half cut in two, as written. Snip out the white core and gristle first, and soak them briefly in cold water or milk; they add much of the savour to the gravy.
- CrustSuet crust is a self-raising flour and shredded suet dough rolled to about half an inch and laid over the dish; puff pastry needs the hotter start above. Cut a vent in either, or the steam lifts the lid off the rim.
- Yield and costSix to eight servings, as stated. The "probable cost, 3s. 6d." is a price index for the reader of the period, not a modern guide.
Cassell's ran through several editions of its Dictionary of Cookery from the 1870s onward, and its bulk reflects how central mutton was to the British table: sheep were often kept largely for wool and slaughtered only when mature, so mutton was cheaper and far more common than the young lamb that dominates butchers' counters now. The pairing of chops with kidney is the same logic that produced steak and kidney pudding — offal was inexpensive and gave a thin baking gravy the depth that plain lean meat could not. The note that suet crust "will be found very suitable if eaten hot" is the practical judgement of a cook who knew that suet pastry turns heavy and greasy as it cools. The optional port and ketchup mark this as the "good" version of a dish that in poorer households would have been meat, water and seasoning alone.