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Broiled Mutton Chops
1 Dozen Chops (loin) Butter, Parsley Salt, Pepper Dip in melted butter and broil over clear fire nearly ten minutes, turning frequently. Lay on a warm platter and garnish with parsley.
A bare-bones broil that assumes a coal or wood fire and a hinged gridiron. The method transfers well, but the cut and the timing both need translating.
- The cutLoin chops from mutton — sheep generally over a year old — are rarely sold in the US; what you will find is lamb loin chops, often around 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick. A dozen chops of that size serves four to six people.
- "Clear fire"This means coals burned down past the flame stage, with no smoke and no flare-up. Under a gas or electric broiler, preheat fully and set the rack so the chop surface sits about 3 inches from the element.
- TimingNearly ten minutes with frequent turning suits a thick chop cooked to medium. Lamb loin is best pulled at 130–135F internal for medium-rare; mutton, being older and stronger, was generally cooked further. Judge by a thermometer rather than the clock, since fire intensity varied enormously.
- Turning frequentlyNot fussiness. On a gridiron over live coals, frequent turning keeps the rendering fat from pooling on one face and catching fire, and it cooks the chop more evenly than two long sides.
- Butter before the fireDipping in melted butter helps browning and keeps the lean eye from drying, but butter solids scorch. Clarified butter, or simply brushing rather than dipping, gives less acrid smoke.
- SeasoningSalt and pepper are listed but never placed. Salt the chops before broiling; pepper afterward, since it burns readily at broiling heat.
- The warm platterWorth doing literally. Lamb fat sets and turns waxy on a cold plate. Warm the platter and let the chops rest four or five minutes before serving.
Broiled loin chops were the standard of Anglo-American "plain cooking" — a sprig of parsley to signal that someone had thought about the plate. That mutton rather than lamb is specified places the recipe in a period when sheep were commonly eaten as mature animals, giving a darker, stronger, fattier meat than anything sold under that name today. Recipes like this one were short enough to be memorized and forgiving of equipment, suited to a young housekeeper putting a respectable chop on the table without a cook's help. The parsley garnish is a conventional finish for grilled meats, and chewing it afterward was traditionally said to sweeten the breath.