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Scallop of Mutton
Cut into small pieces, scraps of cold cooked mutton; put a layer in the bottom of a baking dish, then a layer of stewed tomatoes, then a layer of bread crumbs; sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put over a few bits of butter, then another layer of meat, and so on until the dish is full, having the last layer crumbs. Bake in a moderate oven one and a half hours.
TO BOIL SALT OR SMOKED SHEEPS' TONGUES Wash one dozen sheeps' tongues, and soak them over night in cold water. In the morning, put them in a kettle of fresh cold water and bring them slowly to a boil; skim all the scum from the top, and simmer two hours, stand aside to cool in the liquor. When cold, remove the skin and trim off the rough parts. Lay them between two plates to flatten. Arrange them in a circle on a meat dish with mayonnaise in the centre. Garnish with water cress.
Two economy dishes for cold cooked meat, printed as one block. The scallop is an assembly job; the tongues are a long, slow simmer done the day before serving.
- "Scallop" means scallopedIn this period a scallop is a layered casserole finished with crumbs, not the shellfish and not a thin cutlet. Any straight-sided baking dish of about 1.5-2 quarts works.
- Moderate oven350F. The dish is only heating through and browning the top, since every component is already cooked.
- The bake time is too longAn hour and a half at 350F will dry cooked mutton to threads. Forty-five minutes covered, then fifteen uncovered to brown the crumb top, gets you the same dish with the meat intact. Cover with foil if the top colours early.
- Stewed tomatoesCanned whole or diced tomatoes, drained of the thinnest juice, stand in exactly. The layers need enough liquid to steam the crumbs but not so much that the dish turns to soup; roughly a cup of tomato per pound of meat.
- Bread crumbsSoft crumbs from day-old bread, not the fine dry commercial kind, which pack down and go pasty. Dot the final crumb layer generously with butter or it will not brown.
- Salt and smoked tonguesSheep's tongues are a butcher or halal-market order now; lamb tongues (the same animal, younger and smaller) or veal tongues, which are much larger, will serve, scaling the count to the quantity of meat you want. The overnight soak in cold water draws out cure salt and is not optional for salted or smoked tongues.
- Cooling in the liquorThe recipe has the tongues cool in their own broth rather than being drained hot, which keeps them moist for a cold dish. The skin and rough parts are trimmed once cold. Plan on cooking the day before.
- PressingTwo plates with a weight on top for a few hours in the refrigerator gives the flat slicing shape the arrangement depends on.
- YieldThe scallop serves four to six depending on how much mutton you have. A dozen sheep's tongues is a party dish for eight or more as a cold plate.
Scalloped dishes of cold meat, tomato and crumbs were a common American use for the remains of a roast, and mutton, then far commoner on the table than it is now, was among the meats most in need of rescuing, its fat congealing unpleasantly when served plain and cold. The tongues point at the other half of the period's larder: salted and smoked offal bought by the dozen, boiled down, pressed flat and turned out as a cold buffet piece with mayonnaise and watercress. Watercress and a bowl of mayonnaise in the centre of a ring of sliced meat is a familiar late-nineteenth-century cold-collation presentation.