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Oysters with Leg of Mutton
Make half a dozen deep incisions in the thick part of a well-kept leg of mutton, and fill them with a forcemeat made as follows. Boil a dozen fresh oysters in their own liquor for two minutes, beard them, and mince them finely with a shallot, a table-spoonful of scalded and chopped parsley-leaves, and the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Tie the mutton in a cloth, put it into boiling water, let it boil, then draw it to the side of the fire, and simmer very gently until it is done enough. Serve with oyster sauce. Time to simmer, two and a half to three hours, according to size. Sufficient for eight or ten persons. Probable cost of oysters, 1s. 6d. to 3s. per dozen. P
A boiled leg of mutton stuffed with oyster forcemeat, from the era when oysters were cheap enough to push into a joint of meat by the dozen. Most of the work is in the poaching, which is gentler than the word "boil" suggests.
- Never let it boilThe joint goes into boiling water only to set the surface; after that it must sit at a bare shiver, around 180F, for the whole cooking time. A rolling boil squeezes the muscle fibres and gives you grey, stringy meat and cloudy liquor.
- Oyster sauce means something else hereThe accompanying "oyster sauce" is a Victorian white sauce — a butter-and-flour or cream base slackened with the strained oyster liquor, with poached bearded oysters added at the end. It is not the bottled Cantonese condiment, which will ruin the dish.
- Mutton and its substituteMutton is generally reckoned as sheep over two years old, sold now mainly by specialist butchers and halal shops. A leg of lamb works, but it is milder and leaner; reduce the simmering time and expect a less assertive result. "Well-kept" means hung; how much hanging modern retail meat has had varies.
- Timing and donenessTwo and a half to three hours suits a large mutton leg cooked to falling tenderness; the recipe gives no weight, only "according to size." Rather than the clock, use a probe: around 160-165F at the centre for sliceable meat, higher if you want it to shred. A smaller lamb leg will be there well before three hours.
- Oysters cook in secondsTwo minutes in their own liquor is the outside limit — plump them until the edges just ruffle and stop. Bearding means trimming off the dark frilly mantle, which stays tough. Save every drop of the liquor for the sauce.
- The forcemeat needs a binderAs written it is minced oyster, shallot, parsley and hard-boiled yolk with nothing to hold it. A tablespoon or two of fresh breadcrumbs and a little softened butter will keep it in the incisions instead of leaching into the water. Cut the pockets deep and narrow, and close them with a skewer or a few stitches.
- The clothA scalded cotton or muslin cloth, tied firmly around the joint. It keeps the stuffing in place and the surface from fraying. Cheesecloth in two or three layers does the same job; a large pudding cloth is easier to knot.
- Yield and the liquorEight to ten portions, as stated. The cooking water becomes a mild mutton broth — skim the fat and keep it for barley soup rather than pouring it away.
Boiled leg of mutton was one of the fixed points of the nineteenth-century English dinner table: undemanding, feeding a large household, and traditionally served with caper or oyster sauce. The oysters are the tell of the period. Before the native beds of the Thames estuary and the English coast went into decline late in the century, oysters were a bulk ingredient rather than a luxury, stretched into steak puddings, sausages and forcemeats; Cassell's price note of 1s. 6d. to 3s. a dozen still leaves them cheap enough to bury inside a joint of meat. The pairing of oyster and mutton also reflects an older English taste for combining shellfish with red meat, which survives now mainly in steak and oyster pie.