Mrs. Kelly's Delicious Mutton Stew
Whitchurch
Cut in large slices some cold mutton. Take the gravy left from the day before and warm it. Take a separate saucepan, put in it a spoonful of butter, a little onion, cut fine, sprinkle a little corn farina, stirring all the time, until warm, then add the gravy. Put all in a double saucepan. Then put in the cold mutton and leave until it gets nice and hot.
A thrifty made-over dish that turns yesterday’s roast mutton into a fresh supper — the whole art is in the reheating, not the cooking.
- “Corn farina” = cornstarchThis is finely milled corn used as a thickener; cornstarch is the modern equivalent. Use about 1 tsp, stirred into the butter and onion before the gravy goes in so it doesn’t clump.
- A “spoonful of butter”Read this as about 1 Tbsp — enough to soften the onion and carry the starch.
- Use a real double boilerThe “double saucepan” is a double boiler: a pan or bowl set over simmering water. It reheats the sliced mutton gently, so it warms through without toughening or drying.
- Don’t boil the meatCold cooked mutton is already tender; hard heat only makes it stringy. Bring it to a bare steam, just “nice and hot,” and serve.
- Start with good gravyThe dish is only as good as yesterday’s gravy. If you’re short, stretch it with a little warmed stock rather than water.
Mutton — the meat of a mature sheep — was once the everyday roast of British and American tables, stronger and cheaper than lamb, which is why old cookbooks brim with clever ways to serve it a second time. A stew like this belongs to the frugal tradition of the “made dish” or réchauffé, where nothing from the Sunday joint was wasted. As American tastes shifted toward beef and mild young lamb through the twentieth century, mutton nearly vanished from the market, and recipes like Mrs. Kelly’s became quiet relics of a thriftier kitchen.
From page 21 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
