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Mutton Cutlets, Italian
INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons, as an entrée.- lbs. of best end of neck of mutton, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, 4 oz. of grated bread-crumbs, a teaspoonful of finelyminced onion, 2 oz. of butter, a little grated lemon-rind, salt, pepper, mace, flour, 1 egg, 1 wineglassful of sherry or Madeira, lard for frying. AVERAGE COST, 2s. 6d.
Cut the meat into even, well-shaped cutlets, paring the bones to flatten them.
Mix the bread-crumbs, herbs and seasoning together, melt the butter, dip each cutlet into it, then into beaten egg, and lastly into the bread-crumbs. Put some lard into a frying-pan, and as soon as it boils put in the cutlets and fry them a bright brown, then put them on a hot dish and keep them hot while the gravy is made.
To make this, dredge some flour into the pan, and when it is brown, pour in a teacupful of boiling water and the wine, and a little sauce or ketchup if liked. Boil up once, then pour round the cutlets, and serve with a garnish of vegetables, such as tufts of cauliflower or green peas.
TIME. About 10 minutes to fry the cutlets.
SEASONABLE at any time, MUTTON, FILLET OF.
A straightforward crumbed-and-fried cutlet with a quick pan gravy, of a type that filled the entrée course of Edwardian dinners. Most of the work is in the trimming and the frying temperature.
- Quantity of meatThe weight of neck has dropped out of the ingredient list. For six cutlets as an entrée, reckon on about 2 lb of best end of neck, which gives one cutlet per rib.
- Best end of neckThis is the rack — the rib section between shoulder and loin. A butcher will french the bones for you; "paring the bones to flatten them" refers to trimming the bones back, and cutlets of this kind are usually beaten lightly to an even thickness so they cook through in the ten minutes given.
- Lard and frying temperature"As soon as it boils" describes lard shimmering and just beginning to haze, roughly 350–375F. Below that the crumbs soak; above it they colour before the meat is done. Depth of about half an inch is enough.
- HerbsThe list names only parsley, but the method says "herbs". This may be no more than loose wording, or another herb may have been intended. Add a teaspoon of chopped thyme if you want the flavour the method implies.
- MaceGround mace is the outer covering of nutmeg, warmer and less sweet. A generous pinch in four ounces of crumbs is right; nutmeg at half the quantity will stand in.
- The gravyPour off all but a tablespoon of fat before dredging in the flour, or the sauce will break. A teacupful is roughly 5–6 fl oz, and the wineglass of sherry about 2 fl oz. "Boil up once" means bring to a full boil and take it straight off — it is a thin pan gravy, not a reduction.
- "A little sauce or ketchup"This most likely means Worcestershire, mushroom ketchup or walnut ketchup, though tomato ketchup was also in use by this period. A teaspoon of Worcestershire is the closest easy substitute.
- DonenessTen minutes in hot fat suits cutlets about three-quarters of an inch thick; check one before serving, as they may well be cooked through rather than pink. Thicker cutlets are better browned in the pan and finished a few minutes in a moderately hot oven.
- ServingSix cutlets, one each, as a middle course; as a main dish with the cauliflower or peas, it will feed three.
"Italian" in a late Victorian entrée title rarely signalled anything from Italy. The method here is essentially the standard breaded cutlet of the period, with the lemon rind and mace doing the work of distinguishing it. The dish belongs to the entrée course, a plated, sauced item served between fish and roast, and the average cost of 2s. 6d. that Mrs Beeton's compilers attached to it marks it as an economical way to give a dinner table a made dish.