No. 1587

Breast, Tendon and Shoulder of Mutton, Navarin

Poitrine, Tendon et Epaule de Mouton Navarin

Cut into half inch pieces one pound of breast, one pound of tendon and one pound of shoulder of mutton. Lay these meats in a vessel, season them with salt, pepper, two cloves, nutmeg, thyme, bay leaf and a bunch of parsley containing a clove of garlic; pour on a quarter of a bottleful of Madeira wine and let marinate for six hours, then drain off the meats, wipe dry and fry them with chopped up fat pork and half a pound of three-quarter inch dice pieces of blanched lean bacon; add to this the Madeira and aromatics with some brown sauce (No. 414) and let cook on a moderate fire while skimming off the fat thoroughly. In the meantime prepare some turnips cut out with a one-inch vegetable spoon, fry them in lard and when they begin to brown, sprinkle over some powdered sugar and after they are of a fine color, remove with a skimmer, place in a saucepan and finish cooking in a little of the brown sauce taken from the stew, and wetting with some stock (No. 194a). Dress the stew, range the turnips around and pour over the gravy from both the meat and turnips reduced together with half a pint of white wine and strained through a tammy (No. 159).

← No. 1586 Breast of Mutton Stuffed—Tomato Andalouse Sa Mutton No. 1588 Haricot of Breast of Mutton with Turnips →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's navarin is a straightforward mutton stew, but it leans on the cross-references and butchery vocabulary of a professional French kitchen. A few translations make it workable at home.

"Tendon" is a cut, not gristleTendron is the cartilaginous rib-tip end of the breast, the same thing sold as riblets or breast tips. If your butcher cannot separate it, use three pounds of mutton or lamb breast and shoulder together; shoulder alone gives a leaner, less gelatinous result.
Mutton versus lambMutton means sheep over roughly two years, strongly flavoured and slow to tenderise. It is sold in the UK and at halal butchers; American supermarkets carry lamb. Lamb will be ready sooner and taste milder, and the Madeira marinade will dominate it more.
A quarter of a bottlefulAbout 6 fl oz, or three-quarters of a cup. Use a dry or medium-dry Madeira (Sercial or Verdelho), not the sweet cooking Madeira sold with salt added.
Brown sauce No. 414That is Ranhofer's espagnole: a brown roux moistened with strong veal stock and simmered for hours. A well-reduced brown veal stock, or a good demi-glace let down with stock, stands in for it. No. 194a is one of Ranhofer's cross-referenced stocks; any light, unseasoned meat or poultry stock will serve.
Fat pork and bacon"Chopped up fat pork" is fresh or salt pork fat used as the frying medium; the half pound of "blanched lean bacon" is unsmoked salt pork or slab bacon, dropped in boiling water for a few minutes to draw out salt before dicing. Modern smoked bacon will push the dish somewhere else entirely, so cut back on it or use pancetta.
The turnip ballsA "one-inch vegetable spoon" is a large parisienne scoop. Scoop the turnips into balls, brown them in lard, then sprinkle sugar over so it caramelises — this is glazing, and it is the point of the garnish. They cook separately and go on at the end so they hold their shape.
Moderate fire, and timeThe recipe means a bare simmer on the stove; it gives no oven and no lid. Reckon on two to two and a half hours for mutton, an hour and a half for lamb, until a piece gives easily to a fork. Skim the fat repeatedly, as the recipe insists; a Madeira-and-espagnole sauce turns greasy fast.
Straining through a tammyA tammy was a worsted cloth the sauce was wrung through. A fine chinois, pressed with a ladle, or a double layer of muslin does the same work.
YieldThree pounds of bone-in meat plus the bacon serves six as a main course with bread or potatoes.

A Little History

Navarin is the standard French name for a brown mutton or lamb stew garnished with turnips and other spring vegetables, and its origin is disputed: some trace it to navet, the turnip that defines the dish, while others link it to the naval battle of Navarino in 1827. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years and published The Epicurean in 1894, treats it as one entry in a long run of mutton preparations — a stuffed breast and a haricot with turnips, near neighbours that show how many ways a nineteenth-century brigade could work through the cheaper end of the carcass. The Madeira marinade and the espagnole base mark this as a restaurant version rather than a household one; so does the assumption that a cook has a pot of brown sauce and a pot of stock already standing on the range, which is what makes a recipe like this a set of instructions for assembly rather than a stew from scratch.