No. 1590

Plain Mutton Cutlets and Mutton Chops

Cotelettes de Mouton Nature et Cotelettes de Filet Nature

For plain cutlets use racks of mutton, having the meat tender and well-matured, suppress the skin covering the fat, shorten the rib bones and divide into equal-sized cutlets make a handle to the cutlets by removing the fat from about one inch of the end and scraping the bone clean, when nicely pared they should each weigh about four ounces. Salt the cutlets, baste with oil and range them all on the same side on the broiler; they take from eight to ten minutes to cook. When done, dress them on a dish, pour over a clear gravy (No. 404) and trim each chop with a paper frill (No. 10).

Mutton Chops are cut either from a loin or half saddle of a sheep split lengthwise in two. These chops should be cut rather thick, each one about an inch and a half and then flattened to an inch. Pare and season with salt, baste with oil and broil for about twelve minutes, dress and serve very hot.

← No. 1589 Carbonade a la Juvigny Mutton No. 1591 Mutton Chops Soyer →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two very simple broiled cuts, given without temperatures because Ranhofer assumed a coal-fired broiler and a cook who could judge it. The work is nearly all in the butchery.

What to buy"Racks of mutton" are the rib section; ask for a rack of lamb or mutton, chine bone removed, and cut it into single ribs. Mutton in this sense — sheep over about two years — is rare in American markets; hogget or a well-aged lamb rack is the closest substitute, and a lamb rib chop of about 4 oz is what the recipe describes.
"Suppress the skin covering the fat"This means strip off the papery fell and the tough outer membrane over the fat cap, not remove the fat itself. The fat is what bastes the chop.
Frenching the boneScraping an inch of the rib bone clean is what the recipe means by "a handle." Cut down between the ribs, then scrape with the back of a knife; a butcher will french a rack in seconds.
"Range them all on the same side on the broiler"Probably a hinged wire broiler held over coals, the cutlets laid facing one way so the whole rack can be turned as a unit; the text does not explain itself. On a modern grill or under a broiler it simply means arrange them uniformly so they finish together.
Heat and timingEight to ten minutes total for a 4 oz chop implies fierce direct heat — a very hot grill or a broiler element at full blast, about four to five minutes a side. That gives pink at the bone. Loin chops flattened to an inch take the twelve minutes given. Lamb is best pulled at 130–135°F internal and rested; mutton, being firmer, benefits from the longer end of the range.
Flattening the loin chopsCutting at an inch and a half and pressing to an inch gives an even thickness, so the chop cooks through uniformly; the recipe does not say why. Use the flat of a cleaver or a mallet, gently, so the eye does not tear away from the bone.
The gravy and the frillNo. 404 is a clear meat gravy — a strong brown stock reduced and degreased, not a thickened sauce. The paper frill (No. 10) is standard presentation of the period and can be skipped without loss.
YieldFigure two to three rib cutlets per person, or one thick loin chop. Serve on a hot dish: mutton fat congeals fast and cold mutton is unpleasant.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) out of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the plain broiled cutlet is given its own number alongside the book's dressed versions — Soyer, Juvigny and the rest. Nature in French kitchen usage means this: cooked plain, without garnish or sauce beyond its own gravy. Mutton was still ordinary American eating in the 1890s, when sheep were kept as much for wool as for meat and the carcass came to table older and stronger-flavored than modern lamb; the taste for young lamb, and the near-disappearance of mutton from English-speaking markets, came later. The paper frill on the bone belongs to the same era of platter presentation that gives the book its long lists of trimmings and dish numbers.