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Loin of Mutton in Papers
Saw the chine bone off the neck end of a loin of mutton, trim to a nice shape, removing all the gristle and superfluous fat; lay it in a deep dish with plenty of finely-sliced carrots and onions, some peppercorns, cloves, sweet herbs and two or three bay leaves; season with salt and chopped parsley, moisten well with the best olive oil and leave the meat in the marinade for one day. Afterwards spread the marinading vegetables and oil over a large sheet of paper, lay the meat on them, binding it in position with tape. Roast it in a slow oven and when nearly done remove the paper and vegetables and brown the meat. Peel some potatoes and cut them into slices, and fry in a stewpan with butter, adding some finely chopped parsley until lightly and equally browned. When done, place the mutton on a hot dish, and serve it with the potatoes.
A marinated loin roasted inside an oiled paper wrapper — an early hotel version of en papillote applied to a large cut. Two things decide whether it works: the paper you use, and taking the wrapper off in time to get colour on the meat.
- Use parchment, not "paper"The original means kitchen or butcher's paper, well oiled by the marinade. Use baking parchment; modern printed or coated papers and newsprint have no place in an oven. Foil is not a substitute here — it steams rather than breathes, and the surface will not dry enough to brown.
- "Tape" means twine"Tape" is literal -- narrow flat cotton tape was ordinary kitchen tying material. Cotton butcher's twine does the same job: tie at intervals to hold the parcel closed and the loin in shape. Avoid anything with a synthetic core or coating.
- Slow ovenRead that as roughly 300-325F. The wrapper insulates, so the interior climbs slowly; the recipe simply says to remove the paper and brown the meat at the end, so raise the heat for a short final blast and watch it by eye.
- Ask the butcher for the chine workSawing the chine bone off a loin is not a home-knife job. Order a bone-in loin with the chine removed, or a boned and tied loin, which cooks more evenly in a parcel.
- Mutton versus lambMutton (sheep beyond its first year; definitions vary) is rarely sold in the United States now. A lamb loin will stand in, but it is milder and leaner, so cut the marinade time and watch the cooking closely. If you find true mutton, the day-long oil-and-aromatic marinade is doing real work on both flavour and texture.
- Marinate coldA day in oil and vegetables at room temperature is how it was written and not how it should be done. Marinate covered in the refrigerator, and let the meat sit out 45 minutes to an hour before it goes in the oven.
- Judge by temperatureNo time is given because ovens varied. Cook to 130-135F at the centre for pink, 145F for a lamb loin cooked through, then rest 10 minutes. Mutton is often taken further, to about 150F, where the fat renders better.
- The potatoesSliced potatoes turned in butter in a stewpan are closer to a sauté; slices of about a quarter-inch hold their shape; add the parsley at the end so it stays green.
- YieldA trimmed loin of 3-4 lb serves four to six, with the potatoes as the only accompaniment the recipe intends.
Oscar Tschirky, maître d'hôtel of the Waldorf and then the Waldorf-Astoria, published his cook book in 1896 as a record of what a great American hotel kitchen actually cooked, and its bones are French. Cooking meat wrapped in oiled paper — en papillote, from the French for a paper wrapper or curl — was a familiar restaurant device for holding aromatics against a cut while it roasted, and here it keeps the marinade vegetables in contact with the loin instead of scattering them in the pan. Mutton was ordinary in American and British dining well into the twentieth century, sold alongside lamb; it grew scarce in butchers' cases over the middle of the century, which is what makes this recipe read as unfamiliar now. The long oil marinade with carrot, onion, clove, bay and sweet herbs is essentially a mild raw marinade (marinade crue), the kind of treatment a kitchen gave older, firmer meat before roasting.