Roast Mutton
The leg, loin, saddle and shoulder are used for roasting. Allow twelve minutes to the pound, if liked rare, fifteen if desired well done, basting every ten minutes.
To roast a leg of mutton, first remove the pink outer skin, as this contains the strong flavor. Never roast with the caul left on. The bone from the leg may be removed and the cavity stuffed and edges sewed; or the leg may be roasted without removing bone. In either case wipe meat, dredge with flour, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place on rack in dripping pan. Dredge pan with flour, and if the mutton flavor is desired, place pieces of mutton fat in the pan, or salt pork may be substituted. •
The instructions assume a cook who knows her own range, so no temperature is given and none of the doneness cues are numerical. A thermometer settles both questions.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives none, assuming a cook who knows her own range. A common modern approach for a roast of this kind is a hot start to set the surface, around 450F for 15 to 20 minutes, then 325-350F for the remainder. The book's twelve to fifteen minutes to the pound is its own timing and is not tied to any stated temperature.
- Use a thermometer, not the clockMinutes-per-pound is unreliable across shapes and bone-in versus boned. Pull a leg at 130-135F in the thickest part for rare to medium-rare, 145F for what the book calls well done, and rest 15 minutes before carving.
- The pink outer skinThis is the fell, the papery membrane over the fat. On mature mutton it does carry a strong flavor, which is why it is stripped. On modern lamb it is thin and mild, and many butchers have already removed it.
- CaulThe caul is the lacy fatty membrane from around the animal's stomach, once used to wrap lean roasts. It is a special order today, and the direction here is simply to leave it off.
- DredgeTo dredge is to dust lightly with flour, not to coat. Flour on the meat helps browning; flour scattered in the dripping pan browns in the fat and gives the gravy its color and body.
- Mutton versus lambLamb is generally under about a year, with yearling mutton at one to two years and true mutton older still. Mutton is uncommon in American supermarkets; halal and specialty butchers are the usual sources. A leg of lamb behaves much the same way but cooks a little faster and needs no help with strong flavor.
- Mutton fat or salt porkThe pan fat is there for flavor as much as moisture. Salt pork substitutes cleanly and is easier to find; if the roast is well-marbled lamb, neither is necessary.
- Boning and stuffingA boned leg cooks at a different rate from one on the bone, so check it early rather than trusting the clock. Tie or sew it into an even cylinder, and if the stuffing contains raw egg or sausage bring the center to 165F, which will overcook the surrounding meat somewhat.
- YieldA 5 to 6 lb bone-in leg serves six to eight; a boned and stuffed one, eight to ten.
Lowney's, a chocolate company, published this book to sell cocoa, but like most turn-of-the-century American cookbooks it covers the whole household bill of fare, meats included. The fussiness about mutton here is telling: the recipe works hard to subdue what it calls "the strong flavor" -- hence stripping the fell, banishing the caul, and only adding mutton fat back to the pan "if the mutton flavor is desired." That flavor lives largely in the fat, which is why the fat is treated as a seasoning to be added or withheld. As American lamb production shifted toward younger animals through the twentieth century, mutton itself all but disappeared from ordinary butcher shops, and with it these defensive techniques.