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Mutton Chops with Peas
Broil the chops as usual and have green peas boiled. Heap the peas in the center of a round chop plate; decorate the chops with paper ruffles and arrange them symmetrically around the peas
This is a serving formula more than a set of instructions, and it assumes the cook already knows how to broil a chop. The parts worth spelling out are the meat itself, which is no longer the same animal, and the paper ruffles.
- Mutton is not lambMutton is sheep over a year old, with darker meat and a much stronger flavor; almost nothing sold in American supermarkets is mutton. Loin or rib lamb chops cut 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick are the practical substitute, and they will taste milder and cook faster than what the book intends.
- "Broil as usual"Under a preheated broiler with the rack about 4 inches from the element, chops of that thickness take roughly 4 to 5 minutes a side for medium-rare to medium. Pull them at 130-135F internal and rest 5 minutes; mutton was generally cooked further than that in this period, so if you do find mutton you may prefer to take it nearer 145F.
- Paper rufflesThese are the pleated paper frills, sometimes called cutlet frills or papillotes, that slip over a scraped rib bone. They only work on rib chops that have been frenched, that is, with the meat and membrane cleaned off the last inch or two of bone. They are decorative and go on after cooking, never under the broiler.
- The peasFresh shelled peas want 3 to 5 minutes in salted boiling water and no more; period cookbooks often called for far longer boiling, sometimes with a pinch of soda, which gives grey mush. Frozen peas need 2 minutes. Drain well, toss with butter and a little salt, and heap them while hot so the mound holds its shape.
- Timing the two togetherPeas cool fast in an open heap on a cold plate. Warm the platter, have the peas draining as the chops come off the broiler, and build the dish at the last moment.
- YieldFigure two rib chops or one thick loin chop per person, and about 1/2 cup of peas each.
This is a plating instruction dressed as a recipe, and it belongs to the era when American home cooks were being taught to serve in courses on the Russian model, with each dish brought to the table already composed rather than carved in front of the diners. The crown of chops arranged around a vegetable center reads as a domestic scaling-down of restaurant garniture, and the paper frill points the same way: it comes out of professional French practice, where a clean frilled bone tidied the cut end and was said to give the guest something to hold. Mutton was still ordinary meat in English-speaking kitchens in the early twentieth century, though American taste was already shifting toward younger lamb, and by mid-century mutton had largely disappeared from the retail counter here. Peas with mutton or lamb is an old pairing in British cookery, and it is often explained by early peas and spring lamb coming to market at the same time.