No. 1585

Breast of Mutton Plain

Poitrine de Mouton au Naturel

Take three fine well covered breasts of mutton; remove with a blow of the knife the bone part covering the tendons, tie up the breasts and put them into a baking tin, having the bottom covered with slices of fat pork, carrots, onions and a bunch of garnished parsley; moisten with sufficient stock (No. 194a) to allow them to swim, bring to a boil on the top of the fire, skim, then place in the oven to cook for two hours and a half, turning the meats over during the time. When the bones can be easily detached drain off the breasts and suppress all the rib bones leaving the tendons on; lay the meats under a weight or in the press (No. 71) to reduce them to half an inch in thickness, and when cold pare off the skin without touching the fat; trim them into half hearts, dip in melted butter and stick a piece of the bone in the pointed end; broil over a slow fire to a fine color, then dress, glaze and pour a clear gravy (No. 404) over; garnish each bone end with a frill (No. 10).

← No. 1584 Calves' Tongues a la Perigueux Mutton No. 1586 Breast of Mutton Stuffed—Tomato Andalouse Sa →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is braise, press, chill, then grill — a two-day sequence that produces neat glazed cutlets from a cut most cooks now stew and serve loose. The pressing stage is the whole point and cannot be skipped.

The hinge: press while hotThe breasts must go under weight straight from the braise, while the gelatin is still liquid, and stay there until fully cold. That is what sets them into a sliceable half-inch slab; press a cooled breast and it simply springs back.
Improvising the pressNo. 71 is Ranhofer's press. A sheet pan, a second pan on top, and 5-10 lb of cans or a foil-wrapped brick does the same work. Refrigerate under the weight overnight.
Breast of mutton todayMutton is older sheep, variously reckoned from a year or two upward, and is rarely sold in the US; lamb breast is the practical substitute and will be smaller and milder. Ranhofer gives no yield. Ask a butcher to leave the breast whole and untrimmed.
Oven temperatureRanhofer gives none. Bring the liquid to a boil on the stove, skim, cover, and hold it at a bare simmer in a 325F oven for the stated two and a half hours. It is done when the rib bones pull free with no resistance.
"Fat pork"Unsmoked salt pork or fresh pork fatback, sliced thin to line the pan. Blanch salt pork a few minutes first or the braise turns salty as it reduces. Thick-cut unsmoked bacon is the easiest stand-in.
Stock, gravy and the cross-referencesNo. 194a is one of Ranhofer's stocks; use unsalted veal or chicken stock, enough that the meat floats. No. 404 is the clear gravy the recipe calls for — reduce the strained braising liquid hard, defat it, and use that instead. The "glaze" is the same reduction taken to a syrup and brushed on.
Tendons and bonesBefore pressing you remove every rib bone but leave the cartilaginous tendons in place. One bone is pushed back into the pointed end of each trimmed cutlet as a handle for the paper frill (No. 10).
Broiling"A slow fire" means the cutlets are only being colored and heated through — the meat is already cooked. Butter-dipped, they take a few minutes a side over moderate coals or under a broiler set low, and will burn quickly if rushed.

A Little History

Au naturel in Ranhofer's usage means without a stuffing or elaborate sauce, distinguishing this from No. 1586 immediately following, where the same breast is boned and filled. The braise-press-crumb-or-butter-then-grill treatment of breast of mutton or lamb was a staple of nineteenth-century professional kitchens on both sides of the Atlantic: the cut is fatty, gelatinous and cheap, and pressing turned it into something that could be portioned as neatly as a chop and sent out with a frill on the bone. Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a full record of that repertoire, which is why a humble cut arrives here with a paper cuff on it. Mutton itself was ordinary American eating in 1894 and had all but disappeared from US markets by the mid-twentieth century, as lamb, sold younger and milder, took over the trade.