Mutton Stew
Cut slices of rare mutton and put on to stew in a little water; when nearly done put in- 1 teacup of sweet pickle vinegar. 3 large spoonfuls jelly. A little salt. 1 teaspoonful mustard. 1/2 teacup of walnut catsup. Butter size of an egg. Stew slowly a short time.--Mrs. F. D.
Mutton Stew.
Slice cold mutton or lamb, lay it in a baking dish; put in- 1 teaspoonful black pepper. 1 teaspoonful red pepper. 1 teaspoonful celery-seed, pounded. Rather more than 1 teaspoonful each of pounded cloves, cin namon and mace. 1 teacup of yellow pickle vinegar. 1 glassful wine. Slice up a little yellow pickled cucumber, sugar to taste, one quarter, pound butter, one roll of light bread broken in small pieces or cut in little slices, and toasted before used.
In preparing this dish put a layer of the meat and seasonings alternately. The peppers, celery-seed, cloves, cinnamon, and mace must all be pounded fine.--Mrs. C.
Two separate methods printed under one heading, both built on meat from a roast already cooked: the first a stovetop reheat in a sharp sauce, the second a layered, spiced bake. Neither is a stew in the modern sense of simmering raw meat until tender.
- "Rare mutton" and "cold mutton"Both versions assume slices carved from an already-roasted joint, the first still pink. Leg or shoulder of lamb works throughout; supermarket mutton is scarce, and lamb's milder flavour suits the heavy spicing.
- Teacup, glassful, butter the size of an eggA period teacup is usually reckoned at somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cup; a wine glassful is roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup. Butter the size of an egg is about 2 oz, and the quarter pound in the second recipe is 4 oz or one stick.
- Pickle vinegars"Sweet pickle vinegar" and "yellow pickle vinegar" are the spiced brines left in the crock after the pickles are eaten — yellow pickle being the turmeric-and-mustard mixed pickle of the period. The drained liquid from a jar of bread-and-butter or mustard pickle is the nearest equivalent.
- Walnut catsupA thin, dark, salty condiment of green walnuts, vinegar and spice, often with anchovy, and still sold by some British specialty makers. Mushroom ketchup is the usual substitute; a spoonful of Worcestershire plus a little soy gives a similar savoury-sour register.
- Three spoonfuls of jellyMost likely a tart red currant jelly, the usual companion to mutton, and it does the structural work in the first version: it sweetens the pickle vinegar and gives the thin sauce body as it reduces.
- Go easy on the red pepperA full teaspoon of cayenne with a teaspoon of black pepper, plus cloves, cinnamon and mace, will overwhelm a small dish. The quantities suit a family-sized platter of sliced meat; scale the spices to the amount of mutton rather than following them absolutely.
- Oven and timing for the second versionNo temperature is given. A moderate oven, 350F, for about half an hour is enough to heat the meat through and let the toasted bread absorb the liquid — the point is warming and saucing, not cooking. Longer only dries out already-roasted meat.
- Stew slowly a short timeThe hinge of the first recipe. The meat is cooked; simmering it hard in acid vinegar tightens the fibres and turns the slices grey and stringy. Bring the sauce to a bare simmer, turn the slices to coat, and take it off within a few minutes.
- YieldNeither version specifies a quantity of meat; the seasonings suit something on the order of 1 to 1 1/2 lb of sliced cooked meat, which would serve about four with potatoes or rice.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (usually dated 1877, though editions are variously dated 1877, 1878 and 1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions signed with initials — here Mrs. F. D. and Mrs. C. — belongs to the era when a large roast joint was the centre of the week's eating and its remains had to be made interesting twice or three times over. Both recipes are essentially rescue operations, and both reach for the same tool: acid and spice strong enough to disguise the flatness of reheated mutton. The pickle crock is doing double duty, its leftover brine treated as a seasoning in its own right. Walnut catsup, now nearly forgotten outside Britain, was one of a family of bottled savoury sauces — mushroom, walnut, oyster — that stood in American and English kitchens before commercial Worcestershire and tomato ketchup displaced them, and its anchovy-and-vinegar sharpness explains why so many nineteenth-century meat dishes taste more pungent than their ingredient lists suggest.