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Shoulder of Mutton Stuffed
1 cup bread crumbs 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 1 egg Juice of one lemon 1 teaspoon salt 1 saltspoon pepper Shoulder of mutton Have the blade removed from the shoulder and fill the space with a stuffing made in the usual way. Sew up the opening and roast the shoulder, putting a little water in the pan and basting frequently. Allow from fifteen to eighteen minutes to the pound, and when done make a brown sauce in the pan.
The stuffing may be varied by the addition of chopped meat, celery, onion, oysters, mushrooms, etc.
A boned shoulder, a plain bread stuffing and a pan gravy. The book assumes you know the roasting temperature and the butchery, so both need filling in.
- The butchery is the hinge"Have the blade removed" means asking for a shoulder boned but not rolled, leaving the cavity the blade bone occupied. A butcher will do this on request; a shoulder sold pre-rolled and tied has no pocket left to fill.
- Mutton or lambMutton is mature sheep, generally over a year old, stronger in flavour and slower to cook, and it is rarely sold in North America now. A 4-6 lb bone-in lamb shoulder is the practical substitute and will taste milder.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. One teaspoon of salt for a cup of crumbs is right for the stuffing alone; the meat itself needs seasoning separately.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given; the book leaves it to the cook's own judgement. Roast at 325-350F throughout; a stuffed joint benefits from the lower end so the centre catches up with the outside.
- Timing and donenessFifteen to eighteen minutes to the pound at that temperature takes lamb well past pink, which is what the period wanted. Cook to an internal thermometer reading instead - 145F in the thickest meat for medium, and check the stuffing itself reaches 165F, since it contains raw egg.
- Water in the panThe little water keeps the drippings from scorching and creates some steam. Top it up if it dries out, but do not let the level rise enough to braise the underside.
- "Brown sauce in the pan"This is pan gravy: pour off most of the fat, stir a tablespoon or two of flour into what remains, cook it until it smells nutty, then whisk in stock and the pan juices.
- Resting and yieldRest the joint 15-20 minutes before cutting the trussing string, or the stuffing spills. A shoulder this size serves six to eight.
Stuffed shoulder was the standard thrifty treatment for one of the cheaper cuts on the carcass: the shoulder is muscular and awkwardly boned, and removing the blade turned a difficult joint into something that carved in neat slices while the forcemeat stretched the meat across more plates. The list of variations - chopped meat, celery, onion, oysters, mushrooms - is characteristic of American cookery around 1900, when oysters were cheap enough to serve as a routine bulking ingredient rather than a luxury. The recipe also reflects a period when mutton was ordinary butcher's meat in the United States; the shift to almost exclusively young lamb came later, and a modern cook following this page is working with a milder animal than the one the book had in mind.