Spiced Mutton
Mix together 1½ teaspoonful each of ground cloves and allspice, ¼ of a teaspoonful of mace, 1 teaspoonful of black pepper and 2 teaspoonfuls of salt. Into the under side and cut end of a leg of mutton rub half of this mixture and set away; early next morning rub in the remainder. As soon as the hot oven has seared the surface of the meat pour into the pan ½ pint of boiling water, 1/2 cupful of vinegar and 1 tablespoonful of sugar. Baste the meat with this mixture, adding more water to the pan if needed.
A dry-spiced roast leg of mutton, rubbed in two stages and then basted with a sweet-sour pan liquid. The original assumes a cook who already knows how to roast a joint, so the timings and temperatures have to be supplied.
- The hinge: sear, then drop the heatThe recipe says only "hot oven" and never mentions lowering it, so the schedule has to be supplied: start the joint hot, around 450F, until the outside is browned and set, roughly 20 minutes, then pour in the liquid and reduce to 325-350F for the rest of the time. If the oven stays hot after the water goes in, the pan liquid boils away and the spice crust is more likely to scorch than glaze.
- Rub it in the refrigerator"Set away" means set aside, presumably somewhere cool. Rub the first half of the spice, wrap loosely, and hold the leg in the refrigerator overnight; rub in the remainder in the morning and let the meat stand at room temperature for an hour before it goes in the oven.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep over a year old, strongly flavoured and considerably tougher; it is sold in Britain and by halal and specialist butchers but is rare in ordinary supermarkets. A 5-6 lb leg of lamb takes the same treatment and the same spice quantities, and will cook faster.
- MeasuresHalf a pint of boiling water is one cup. The spice mix as written suits a leg of about 5-7 lb; scale it if your joint is much smaller.
- MaceMace is the outer covering of the nutmeg seed, sold ground in small jars. Ground nutmeg at the same quantity is the usual substitute, though it is sweeter and less peppery.
- Cooking time and donenessAllow roughly 20-25 minutes per pound at 325-350F after the initial sear. Mutton is best taken to about 145F at the thickest part for pink, or 160F if you want it firmer; the joint carries on rising several degrees while it rests.
- Basting and the pan liquidBaste every 20 minutes and top up with hot water whenever the pan threatens to run dry. The vinegar and sugar reduce into a sharp brown glaze that also makes the basis of the gravy: skim the fat, add a little water or stock, and boil down.
- Rest before carvingLet the leg stand loosely tented for 15-20 minutes. A 5-6 lb leg serves six to eight, usually with enough left cold for a second meal.
Spicing a leg of mutton with cloves, allspice, mace and pepper is an old English habit: a heavy spice rub applied a day ahead was a way of giving a large joint an assertive flavour to set against the strong tallowy note that older sheep develop. The vinegar-and-sugar baste belongs to the same tradition, a descendant of the sweet-sour sauces that were served with mutton and venison for centuries. Mutton was the cheap meat of its day, priced well below beef and below young lamb, and the cook's problem was not tenderness alone but flavour; a long slow roast with an assertive rub was the standard answer. Leg was also prized for what came after, since cold spiced mutton sliced thin fed a household for days.