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Mutton, Stewed and Baked
A shoulder of mutton is deprived of its greasy quality by being partially boiled, or rather stewed, and its cooking completed in the oven. Procure a middle-sized shoulder, trim off any excess of fat, and bone it; put it into a stewpan with just water enough to cover it. Simmer gently for two hours or more, according to the size. Put it before the fire, tie a good lump of butter in a coarse muslin, rub the mutton well over, and then strew thickly with fine raspings, chopped parsley, thyme, pepper, and salt, mixed together. Finish the cooking in the oven; half an hour in a good oven will be sufficient. Serve on a hot dish with boiled spinach round the mutton, and gravy in a tureen. Probable cost, 9d. to 10d. per pound. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A two-stage treatment for a fatty cut: a long gentle simmer to render the shoulder, then a short blast in the oven under a herbed crumb crust. The technique still works, and the cooking liquor is the best part of the deal.
- RaspingsRaspings are dried breadcrumbs, made by grating the hard crust off a stale loaf or drying crusts in a cool oven and crushing them. Fine dry breadcrumbs from a packet stand in exactly; panko is too coarse and will not sit in an even coat.
- "A good oven"No temperature is given here or anywhere in the book; the phrase indicates a brisk oven, and something around 400F (200C) will do. The meat is already cooked through, so the half hour is only to set and colour the crust.
- The buttered muslinThe butter tied in coarse cloth is a basting swab: it lets you rub a film of fat over the hot surface without the lump sliding off. A pastry brush and melted butter do the same job, and the coating must go on while the meat is hot or the crumbs will not adhere.
- Boning the shoulderA butcher will bone and roll it in a minute. Ask for the bone, and simmer it alongside the meat -- the shoulder alone gives a thin liquor.
- Do not throw out the cooking liquidThe recipe calls for gravy in a tureen but never says where it comes from. Skim the fat off the simmering liquor, reduce it hard, and season; that is the gravy. A shoulder covered in water for two hours produces a good deal of it.
- TimingTwo hours at a bare simmer for a middle-sized shoulder; the recipe allows more time for larger pieces. The water should barely tremble -- a rolling boil will make the meat stringy rather than tender.
- The cost line9d. to 10d. per pound is Victorian retail pricing in pre-decimal pence, of no use except as a reminder that shoulder was among the cheaper cuts. It is still one of the cheaper cuts of lamb or mutton today.
- SpinachThe spinach is boiled, drained hard and pressed, and laid as a border round the meat. Squeeze it thoroughly or the water will thin the plate and soften the crumb crust.
- ServesFive or six, as given, with the spinach and something starchy alongside.
Shoulder of mutton was a cheap, well-worked, notoriously fatty joint, and Victorian cookery books return again and again to the problem of how to make it palatable to a household that could afford better. Cassell's answer here -- simmer first to draw out the fat, then crust and finish in a hot oven -- is a version of the old practice of parboiling strong or fatty meats. The buttered muslin swab and the herbed rasping crust belong to the same working vocabulary as gratins and breaded cutlets: dried breadcrumbs were a standing byproduct of a kitchen that baked its own bread, kept in a jar and used for coating, thickening and stuffings. Mutton itself, from sheep two years old or more, was one of the staple British roasting meats of the nineteenth century; the shift to young lamb came later, and it is why so many recipes of this period assume a strength of flavour and a quantity of fat that modern lamb simply does not have.