Mutton Broth
Purchase a neck of mutton weighing six or seven pounds. Cut six chops from the better end and separate the rest into small sections. Now place the latter in a saucepan with a little more than two quarts of water, two onions, two turnips, four carrots, two stalks of celery cut in pieces, one and onehalf ounce of salt and one-half teaspoon of pepper; also wash. one-half cup of pearl barley and throw that in with the other ingredients. Simmer thoroughly for two or three hours, strain, let it get cold and remove the fat. Save a few pieces of the vegetables and some of the barley and replace them in the soup. Trim. the chops into neat shape, cutting off all fat, fry slightly in. butter-they must not get hard-put them into the soup and simmer again for three-fourths of an hour.
A two-stage broth: the trimmings and bones build the liquid, the chops are added at the end so they stay tender. The salt is the one figure to reconsider before you start.
- The saltOne and a half ounces is about 2.5 tablespoons of table salt for a little more than two quarts of water — a little over 2% by weight, far saltier than a modern broth. Start with a teaspoon or two and season at the end, after the liquid has reduced.
- Neck of muttonA whole 6-7 lb mutton neck is a special-order item now. Ask a butcher for lamb neck on the bone, or substitute shoulder chops plus a pound or two of lamb bones for the stock stage. Mutton is older sheep and much stronger in flavour than lamb; expect a milder broth from lamb.
- Pearl barleyStill sold as pearl barley and unchanged. Half a cup thickens the broth noticeably over two or three hours; it will keep thickening as it cools, so hold back liquid if you want a thin soup.
- Chilling to degreaseThe instruction to cool the strained broth and lift the fat is the reason this recipe works — mutton fat is waxy and unpleasant warm. Refrigerate overnight and the fat lifts off as a solid cap.
- "Fry slightly"Brown the trimmed chops in butter for a minute or two a side, no more. The warning that they must not get hard is the hinge: hard-seared chops finished with another 45 minutes of simmering go stringy.
- Final simmerThree-quarters of an hour at a bare simmer suits lamb neck chops, which are collagen-rich and want the time. If you substitute loin chops, cut it to 15-20 minutes or they will be dry.
- YieldAbout two quarts before reduction, with six chops — four to six servings as a main-course soup.
Mutton broth belonged to the long British tradition of the boiled joint doing double duty: the pot gave a broth for the invalid or the nursery and a portion of meat for the table. Barley broth of this kind is closely related to Scotch broth, and nineteenth-century household manuals recommended mutton broth constantly for convalescents on the grounds that it was nourishing and easily digested. The presence of a full 6-7 lb mutton neck here reflects a period when a cook bought a large cut and was expected to divide it herself — chops for one dish, trimmings and bone for another.