Lamb and Mutton
AMB is the name given to the meat of lambs; mutton, to the meat of sheep. Lamb, coming as it does from the young creature, is immature, and less nutritious than mutton. The flesh of mutton ranks with the flesh of beef in nutritive value and digestibility. The fat of mutton, on account of its larger percentage of stearic acid, is more difficult of digestion than the fat of beef.
Lamb may be eaten soon after the animal is killed and dressed; mutton must hang to ripen. Good mutton comes from a sheep about three years old, and should hang from two to three weeks. The English South Down Mutton is cut from creatures even older than three years. Young lamb, when killed from six weeks to three months old, is called spring lamb, and appears in the market as early as the last of January, but is very scarce until March. Lamb one year old is called a yearling. Many object to the strong flavor of mutton; this is greatly overcome by removing the pink skin and trimming off superfluous fat.
Lamb and mutton are divided into two parts by cutting through entire length of backbone; then subdivided into fore and hind quarter, eight ribs being left on hind quarter, - while in beef but three ribs are left on hind-quarter. These eight ribs are cut into chops and are known as rib chops. The meat which lies between these ribs and the leg, cut into chops, is known as loin or kidney chops.
Lamb and mutton chops cut from loin have a small piece of tenderloin on one side of bone, and correspond to porterhouse steaks in the beef creature. Rib chops which have the bone cut short and scraped clean, nearly to the lean meat, are called French chops.
The leg is sold whole for boiling or roasting. The forequarter may be boned, stuffed, rolled, and roasted, but is more often used for broth, stew, or fricassee.
For a saddle of mutton the loin is removed whole before splitting the creature. Some of the bones are removed and the flank ends are rolled, fastened with wooden skewers, and securely tied to keep skewers in place.
Good quality mutton should be fine-grained and of bright pink color; the fat white, hard, and flaky. If the outside skin comes off easily, mutton is sure to be good. Lamb chops may be easily distinguished from mutton chops by the red color of bone. As lamb grows older, blood receães from bones; therefore in mutton the bone is white. In leg of lamb the bone at joint is serrated, while in leg of mutton the bone at joint is smooth and rounded. Good mutton contains a larger proportion of fat than good beef. Poor mutton is often told by the relatively small proportion of fat and lean as compared to bone.
Lamb is usually preferred well done; mutton is often cooked rare.
Broiled Lamb or Mutton Chops Wipe chops, remove superfluous fat, and place in a broiler greased with some of mutton fat. In loin chops, flank may be rolled and fastened with a small wooden skewer. Follow directions for Broiling Beefsteak on page 196.
The bulk of this page is a butcher's primer, but it closes with a working recipe: broiled chops, cross-referenced to the book's beefsteak method. Here is what needs translating.
- The cross-reference"Follow directions for Broiling Beefsteak" -- points to the book's own method, not reprinted here; broadly it means a very hot surface with the meat turned often at first, then less. In a modern kitchen that is a heavy cast-iron grill pan or ridged skillet preheated until it smokes faintly, or a charcoal grill over direct heat. The book's "broiler" is a wire broiler held over coals, not the overhead element in your oven.
- Greasing with mutton fatTrimmed mutton fat rubbed on the grid was standard because it has a high melting point and coats hot metal without burning off instantly. Beef tallow or clarified butter does the same job; ordinary butter will scorch at broiling heat.
- DonenessThe instruction that lamb is "usually preferred well done" reflects 1896 fat and flavour, not current practice. Loin and rib chops are best pulled at 130-135F internal for medium-rare to medium; a thick chop takes roughly 3-4 minutes a side. Shoulder chops, being tougher, tolerate a little more.
- Thickness matters more than timeA thin chop can be done in two or three minutes total, while a 1 1/4-inch loin chop needs closer to eight. Judge by feel or a thermometer rather than the clock.
- Skewering the flankA loin chop has a thin tail of flank that will overcook and curl. Rolling it against the eye of the meat and pinning it keeps the chop compact and the cooking even. A metal skewer or a soaked wooden toothpick works; trim it flush so it does not char.
- Mutton is now a special orderAlmost all "lamb" sold in the United States is under a year old, so the strong flavour the book warns about is largely gone, along with the hanging period it describes. True mutton from a three-year-old sheep must be sought from a farm butcher or a halal supplier, and it does benefit from removing the pink fell and excess fat as directed.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantity. Reckon two rib or French chops per person, or one thick loin chop of about 6 oz.
Fannie Farmer's chapter reflects a market that no longer exists: American butchers in the 1890s sold both young lamb and properly aged mutton, and a cook was expected to tell them apart by the colour of the bone and the shape of the leg joint. Mutton hung two or three weeks to ripen, a practice that developed flavour but also demanded cold-storage space and a customer who accepted the result. Mutton consumption in the United States collapsed over the following half-century, a decline often attributed to the wool industry's shift, the rise of cheap beef and pork, and the wartime experience of poorly cooked mutton in military messes. The passage on stearic acid is characteristic of the Boston Cooking School's approach, which taught cookery alongside the new science of nutrition and expected students to reason about digestibility as well as taste. The reference to South Down mutton comes in a note that English South Down mutton is from animals older than three years.