Mustard, Tartar
INGREDIENTS. -Horseradish vinegar, cayenne, 1/2 a teacupful of mustard. Have ready sufficient horseradish vinegar to mix with the above proportion of mustard; put the mustard into a cup, with Neck.
Shoulder.
ED A Haunch.
E E Head.
Tongue.
D D Loin.
Chump Chop.
B Leg.
M Feet.
Kidneys.
D Heart C Breast.
Liver.
Saddle.
Side of Sheep.
Loin Chop.
Neck and Scrag Various Parts of Mutton.
C
MUTTON. a slight seasoning of cayenne; mix it perfectly smooth with the vinegar, adding this a little at a time; rub down with the back of a spoon any lumps that may appear and do not let it be too thin. Mustard may be flavoured in various ways: with Tarragon, shalot, celery and many other vinegars, herbs, spices, &c.
Mutton. Almost every large city has a particular manner of cutting up, or as it is called, dressing, the carcase. In London this process is very simple, and as our butchers have found that much skewering back, doubling one part over another, or scoring the inner cuticle or fell tends to spoil the meat and shorten the time it would otherwise keep, they avoid all such treatment entirely. The carcase when flayed (which operation is performed while yet warm), the sheep when hung up and the head removed, presents the profile shown in our cut; the small numerals indicating the parts or joints into which one-half of the animal is cut. After 6 1 2 4 5 SHOWING THE SEVERAL JOINTS. separating the hind from the fore quarters, with eleven ribs to the latter, the quarters are usually subdivided in the manner shown in the sketch, in which the several joints are defined by the intervening lines and figures.
SIDE OF MUTTON, Hind quarter: No. 1, the leg; 2, the loin-the two, when cut in one piece, being called the saddle. Fore quarter: No. 3, the shoulder; 4 and 5 the neck: No. 5 being called, for distinction, the scrag, which is generally afterwards separated from 4, the lower and better joint; No. 6, the breast. The haunch of mutton, so often served at public dinners and special entertainments, comprises all the leg and so much of the loin, short of the ribs or lap, as is indicated on the upper part of the carcase by a dotted line. 1
A flavoured English mustard paste rather than a cooked sauce: dry mustard flour let down with horseradish vinegar and sharpened with cayenne. The whole trick is in the mixing.
- "Mustard" means the powderThis is dry mustard flour of the Colman's or Keen's type, not a jarred prepared mustard. Half a teacupful is roughly 2 1/2 fl oz by volume; the weight varies with how loosely the powder is packed.
- Horseradish vinegarA household infusion, now rarely seen on shop shelves: grated fresh horseradish steeped in vinegar for a week or two and strained. Easily made at home if you cannot buy it.
- Add the liquid drop by dropThe hinge of the recipe. Pour in only a teaspoon or so at a time and work it against the side of the cup with the back of a spoon. Adding vinegar quickly gives lumps of dry powder that will never smooth out.
- ConsistencyAim for a paste that just holds a soft ridge, thicker than you think you want; the recipe warns only that it should not be too thin.
- Let it standGive it fifteen minutes before tasting. Vinegar-mixed mustard is milder and slower to bloom than water-mixed, and it keeps its edge far longer for the same reason.
- CayenneA slight seasoning means a pinch. The heat should sit under the mustard, not compete with it.
- Yield and keepingAbout half a small jar. Covered and refrigerated it holds for several weeks, gradually losing pungency; make it in small quantities.
Mustard flour was one of the great Victorian convenience goods, sold by the tin and mixed fresh at the sideboard by the spoonful. The name "tartar" here has nothing to do with cream of tartar; in period usage a la tartare generally signalled a piquant sauce, the same sense that gives us sauce tartare and steak served a la tartare. Horseradish vinegar, tarragon vinegar, shalot vinegar and the rest were standing bottles in a well-run larder, each a way of carrying one flavour through a winter, and mustard mixed with them turned a single tin of powder into a small range of condiments for cold mutton, beef and game.