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Broiled Mutton Chops
Beat the mutton chops till tender; then trim, making them of uniform size and shape; pour on them boiling water. Let them remain in it a minute, dry them and rub with pepper, salt, and fresh butter. Lay on a gridiron over hot coals, always remembering to cover them while broiling. Turn them, and as soon as nicely browned place in a hot dish, pepper again, pour over them melted butter, and serve.--Mrs. S. T.
A plain nineteenth-century chop, cooked over coals with only butter and pepper. Two of its steps look odd now, and one of them is worth keeping.
- The hinge: cover while broilingThe recipe insists on covering the chops on the gridiron, presumably to hold heat around them and slow drying over open coals; it gives no reason itself. Under a modern broiler, an inverted heatproof bowl or a foil tent for the first side does much the same job; on a grill, close the lid.
- The boiling-water dipThe reason for the minute in boiling water is not given; it may have been meant to firm or clean the surface of older, stronger mutton. With today's lamb it is unnecessary, and it will keep the chop from browning unless you dry it thoroughly — pat it bone dry if you try it at all.
- Beating the chopsThe recipe opens by beating the chops "till tender," a reasonable step for mature mutton, which was tougher than lamb. Modern loin or rib lamb chops need no beating; flattening them only squeezes out juice. If you have a genuine mutton chop from an older animal, a few taps with the flat of a cleaver is enough.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep over a year, usually two or more, with darker meat and a much more pronounced flavour. It is sold at halal and specialist butchers; supermarket lamb chops are a milder substitute and cook faster.
- Heat and timing"Hot coals" means a bed burned down to grey ash with no flame, or a broiler fully preheated. Chops about an inch thick take roughly 4 minutes a side for medium-rare (130–135F at the centre); mutton is better taken a shade further, to about 140F.
- GridironA gridiron was an iron or wire grate, sometimes hinged, set over the coals on the hearth. A cast-iron grill pan or a grill grate over charcoal reproduces the searing contact marks; a broiler pan gives radiant heat from above and works nearly as well.
- Seasoning twiceThe chops are peppered before cooking and again in the hot dish; the recipe does not say why. Coarse black pepper and a spoonful of melted butter poured over is the whole sauce.
- YieldFigure two rib or loin chops per person, three if they are small. Warm the serving dish; mutton fat congeals quickly on a cold plate.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by a large number of Southern housewives, is full of these short attributed entries, many signed only with initials — "Mrs. S. T." is one such contributor. Broiling over coals on a gridiron was a common way to cook a chop in the period. Mutton mattered more then than now: sheep were kept for wool as well as meat, and the meat that reached the table was often from an older animal, which may explain the beating and the scalding step. American taste shifted toward young lamb over the twentieth century, and mutton recipes like this one became rare in general cookbooks by mid-century.