No. 1588

Haricot of Breast of Mutton with Turnips

Haricot de Mouton aux Navets

Have three pounds of breast of mutton cut up into two inches pieces; fry them in six ounces of butter letting them get a fine color, then drain them through a colander; trim and cut the bones, pare square, add one ounce of flour to the butter and when slightly browned, moisten with the three pints of broth, (No. 194a) boil, skim off the fat and strain through a tammy. Set all this into a clean saucepan and add to it the well-pared pieces of meat, add two carrots, two onions, one with three cloves in it, a bunch of parsley garnished with bay leaf, thyme and a clove of garlic, salt and pepper; let boil until the meat is well cooked and the sauce properly reduced. Pare two pounds of turnips the same shape as pigeon's eggs, fry them in butter and as they first begin to brown, sprinkle over with powdered sugar, and when they have attained a very fine color, put them into the stew removing the fat pieces an hour before serving allowing them all to cook together After the meat is done, which can easily be perceived if the bones detach easily, remove the carrots, onions and parsley, then dress the meat and garnish with the turnips; strain the sauce and pour it over; in case the sauce be too thin reduce it until it acquires proper consistency.

← No. 1587 Breast, Tendon and Shoulder of Mutton, Navar Mutton No. 1589 Carbonade a la Juvigny →

For the Modern Kitchen

A classic brown mutton stew, glazed turnips and all. The method is sound as written; the vocabulary and the fat quantities are what need translating.

The hinge: brown the turnips separatelyThe turnips are fried in butter and caramelized with sugar on their own, then added to the stew for the last stretch of cooking. Boiling them with the meat from the start gives you watery, sulfurous turnip and none of the glaze that makes the dish.
Broth No. 194aThe number points to one of the book's own stocks; a plain unsalted brown stock, veal or beef, is a reasonable substitute. Three pints is 6 cups; use a good low-sodium beef or veal stock and season at the end, since the sauce reduces considerably.
TammyA tammy was a worsted straining cloth wrung between two people to force sauce through. A fine-mesh conical strainer, or a sieve lined with damp cheesecloth, does the same work.
Six ounces of butterThat is a stick and a half for 3 lb of meat. Three or four tablespoons will brown the meat perfectly; the recipe skims the fat off the sauce anyway.
MuttonTrue mutton (sheep over a year, often much older) is rare in American markets. Lamb breast or lamb shoulder cut in 2-inch pieces works, but cooks faster and tastes milder — check for the bones loosening rather than watching the clock.
\About the size of a large olive or small egg — roughly 1 to 1½ inches. Turn them with a small knife into smooth ovals so they brown evenly and hold their shape through the last hour.
TimingExpect 1½ to 2 hours of gentle simmering for mutton, closer to 1¼ for lamb, at a bare bubble rather than a rolling boil. The turnips go in for the final 45 minutes to an hour.

A Little History

Haricot de mouton has nothing to do with beans, despite the spelling: the name is generally traced to the old French verb harigoter, to cut up or shred, and the dish was a way of cutting up the cheaper joints — breast, tendon, shoulder — into something worth serving. The confusion with haricot beans is old enough that English cookbooks of the eighteenth century sometimes put beans in it. Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, printed The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of a grand restaurant kitchen, and its mutton chapter runs through every cut methodically; this entry sits between a navarin and a carbonade, all variations on the same principle of braising sheep with root vegetables. The glazed turnips are the mark of the professional kitchen rather than the domestic one — browning and sugaring them in a separate pan is an extra step, and it is exactly what lifts the dish.