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Sheep's Trotters, Marinaded
Boil a set of trotters according to the directions already given (see SHEEP'S TROTTERS, a la Poulette). Drain them, let them get cold, and cut them up into neat pieces convenient for serving. Put them into a basin, sprinkle a little salt and pepper over them, and pour upon them two table-spoonfuls of vinegar and one of oil. Move them about, turn them occasionally, and let them lie in this marinade for an hour. Half an hour before they are to be served, drain the pieces from the pickle, dip them separately in frying-batter, and fry them in hot rat till they are lightly and equally browned all over. If preferred, instead of being dipped in batter and fried, they may be rolled in bread-crumbs and grilled. Dish them on a napkin, and send tomato sauce or sauce piquant to table with them. The frying batter may be made as follows. Put five ounces of flour into a bowl, and beat it up with a pinch of salt and a quarter of a pint of water. Break two eggs, and separate the whites from the yolks. Beat the latter with two table-spoonfuls of Lucca oil, stir the mixture into the flour, and beat it till it is smooth and thick. Ten minutes before the batter is wanted, whisk the whites of the eggs, and add them to it. It should be as thick as cream. A spoonful or two of water may be added if required. This batter is better if made an hour or two before it is to be used. Time to boil the trotters, three hours and a half; to fry the pieces, about ten minutes. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for a small dish.
A Victorian way of turning a long-boiled cheap cut into something crisp: cold cooked trotters marinated in vinegar and oil, then battered and fried. The work is all in the first stage, which the entry pushes off to another page.
- "Hot rat" is a typoThe original printing reads "fry them in hot rat" — it means hot fat. Deep-fry at 350–375F; below that the batter absorbs grease rather than setting.
- The boiling stage is not optionalThe cross-reference to Sheep's Trotters à la Poulette is where the actual cooking happens; this entry supplies only the time, three and a half hours. Undercooked trotter is inedibly tough, and no amount of batter disguises it. A pressure cooker will shorten the boiling considerably.
- A "set" of trottersFour feet, from one animal. Sheep's and lamb's feet are a special order from a butcher now rather than a shop staple; pig's trotters take the same treatment and are far easier to find.
- Lucca oilOlive oil from Lucca in Tuscany, the standard fine table oil in British kitchens of the period. Any decent olive oil serves, in both the marinade and the batter.
- Quarter of a pintImperial measure: 5 fl oz, or about two-thirds of a US cup, to 5 oz flour. The batter should coat the back of a spoon like thick cream; the extra spoonful of water the text allows for is the adjustment to make.
- Chill and dry before dippingDrain the pieces from the marinade and blot them properly. Vinegar-wet meat makes batter slide off and spits violently in the fat.
- The grilled variationRolled in crumbs and grilled, the pieces want a brushing of the marinade oil and a medium-hot grill — the meat is already cooked, so the aim is colour, four or five minutes a side.
- Yield and serviceFour feet make a first course or savoury for two, three at most. The napkin is there to absorb frying fat; a wire rack does the job better. Sauce piquante here means a reduction of vinegar, shallot and stock, sharp enough to cut the gelatine.
"Marinaded" translates the French en marinade — a standard nineteenth-century treatment for any already-boiled, gelatinous cut: steep it in vinegar and oil to sharpen it, then batter and fry it so it eats crisp instead of sticky. Sheep's trotters belonged to the cheapest end of the meat trade; boiled feet were sold hot from street barrows in Victorian cities, and the "probable cost, 1s." attached here marks this out as a dish for a household stretching its butcher's bill rather than one entertaining. The gelatine that makes trotters awkward to eat plain is also what makes them worth the trouble.