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Mutton Chop (Cut the steaks pepper and salt)
Cut the steaks; pepper and salt them. Broil them lightly on both sides; take them off the gridiron, lay them on a spider. Slice up one large onion and stew until it becomes tender; put a layer between each chop and stew until they become tender. Take out the steaks, cover them closely or tilt the gravy to the side of the vessel, till it is brown; stir in a lump of butter.--Mrs. A. P.
Mutton Chop.
Mushroom catsup is a nice flavoring. Put pepper and salt on the chops and lay them in melted butter; when they have imbibed sufficient, take out and cover with grated bread crumbs and broil.--Mrs. R.
Two contributions run together here: Mrs. A. P.'s broiled-then-stewed chops with onion, and Mrs. R.'s buttered, crumbed chops. Both assume mutton, a hot open fire, and a cook who can judge doneness by eye.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep over a year old — stronger-flavoured and tougher than lamb, which may be why the first version stews the chops after broiling. Lamb shoulder chops are the closest common substitute and respond well to the same braise; lamb rib or loin chops do not need it and will overcook.
- A spiderA spider is a cast-iron frying pan, originally with three legs so it could stand over coals. Any heavy skillet or a shallow braising pan with a lid does the job.
- GridironA gridiron is a grate set over live coals. A ridged cast-iron grill pan or an outdoor grill gives the same effect; a broiler works but you lose the char.
- "Broil them lightly"This is the hinge of the first version. The chops are only being marked and coloured — a minute or two per side over high heat — because the real cooking happens in the covered pan with the onions.
- The onion braiseLayer the sliced onion between and over the chops, cover, and cook gently until both onion and meat are tender: roughly 45 minutes to an hour for shoulder chops. Add a splash of water or stock if the pan runs dry, since the onions alone may not give enough liquid on a modern hob.
- Browning the gravy"Tilt the gravy to the side of the vessel, till it is brown" means pooling the juices and reducing them hard against the hot metal until they darken and concentrate. Off the heat, swirl in a tablespoon or two of butter to finish.
- Mushroom catsupA thin, dark, salty mushroom extract, not a tomato sauce. Mushroom ketchup is still sold; a teaspoon of Worcestershire or a dash of soy stands in for the same savoury note.
- Mrs. R.'s crumbed chops"When they have imbibed sufficient" is a matter of minutes in the melted butter, long enough to coat thoroughly. Press dry breadcrumbs on firmly, and cook a little further from the heat than you would bare chops or the crumbs blacken before the meat is done.
- YieldNeither version gives a count. Reckon two chops per person for shoulder cuts; the stewed version calls for one large onion, without saying for how many chops.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879) was assembled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, most of whom appear only as initials, which is why a single heading here carries two unrelated methods signed by two different women — the book reads less like an authored cookbook than a compiled collection. Mutton was ordinary meat in nineteenth-century America in a way it no longer is: sheep were kept for wool as much as for the table, and the carcass that came of it was mature, assertively flavoured, and needed the kind of coaxing Mrs. A. P. gives it. The two treatments also mark a technique that has largely dropped out of American cooking: the chop is first seared over coals for flavour, then finished slowly in a covered pan, a sequence that survives in braises but is now rarely applied to anything called a chop. Mushroom catsup, offered here almost in passing, was among the standard bottled savoury seasonings of the English-speaking kitchen, later displaced by tomato ketchup and commercial Worcestershire.