No. 1626

Leg of Mutton a la Reglain

Gigot de Mouton a la Reglain

Bone a leg of mutton without opening, place it in an earthen vessel and pour over a cold cooked marinade (No. 114); marinate it for twelve hours, then lard the meat with medium-lardons (No. 2, Fig. 52) and lay it on a dish to coat over with lard; roast it and when it has attained a fine color, pour over its strained marinade and finish the cooking, keeping it basted at short intervals. Prepare some slices of tongue and cover each one with a croquette preparation made with sheep's brains, minced mushrooms, veloute sauce (No. 415), chopped parsley, egg-yolks and fresh butter; dust with bread-crumbs, dip in eggs and fry. Dress and garnish the leg around with the slices of tongue, and serve with a separate marinade sauce (No. 496).

← No. 1625 Leg of Mutton a la Chipolata Mutton No. 1627 Leg of Mutton a la Roederer →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer's leg of mutton is really two dishes on one platter: a marinated, larded roast handled like venison, and a set of fried croquette-topped tongue slices around it. Read the second half as a separate project with its own timing.

Bone it without opening"Bone without opening" means tunnel boning: work the knife in from the wide end and around the bone, leaving the leg intact as a closed pocket rather than butterflying it. Ask a butcher for a tunnel-boned leg, and tie it at 1-inch intervals so it holds its shape through the long roast.
The cooked marinadeNo. 114 is a cooked marinade in the old sense: a wine-and-vinegar liquid with aromatic vegetables, herbs and spices, simmered and then cooled before it touches the meat; check No. 114 for its exact composition. The recipe specifies a cold marinade, so let it cool completely before pouring it over.
Twelve hours means refrigeratedThe original assumes a cold larder. Marinate in a non-reactive container in the refrigerator, and pat the meat thoroughly dry before larding or it will steam rather than brown.
Larding and "coat over with lard"Medium lardons are strips of hard back fat, roughly 1/8 to 1/4 inch square (No. 2, Fig. 52 gives Ranhofer's sizes), threaded through the meat with a larding needle. "Coat over with lard" means smearing the outside with soft pork fat; softened lard or clarified butter does the job.
Oven temperaturesRanhofer says only "roast it." As a modern equivalent, start hot, around 450F, until the leg has taken colour, then add the strained marinade and drop to about 325F to finish, basting every ten to fifteen minutes as the recipe directs. A boned and tied leg of about 5 lb reaches medium-rare at 130-135F internal and medium at about 145F.
Mutton itselfMutton generally means sheep over two years old (definitions vary), with a stronger flavour and firmer grain than lamb. If only lamb is available the marinating and larding are still worth doing, but lamb cooks faster, so check the thermometer early.
The sheep's brain garnishOvine brain from older sheep is classed as specified risk material and its sale is restricted or prohibited in the UK and EU because of TSE concerns; rules elsewhere, including North America, vary, so check local regulations and do not source it informally. The croquette works with the same weight of poached sweetbread or firm mushroom duxelles bound in the veloute.
The croquettesThe filling is a thick veloute bound with egg yolks and butter, then chilled hard before it can be shaped, crumbed and fried. Make it a day ahead; a warm mixture will burst in the fat. Fry at 350-360F until deep gold, and set the pieces on the tongue slices only at serving.
Yield and sauceA 5 to 6 lb boned leg with the garnish serves eight to ten. The separate marinade sauce (No. 496) is a poivrade-style sauce related to the marinade; see the original entry for its composition.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is full of dishes carrying the names of patrons, singers and public men whose identities the book does not explain; "a la Reglain" is one of those, unglossed in the book and not obviously traceable. The cooking, though, is legible: marinating a leg of mutton in a cooked wine-and-vinegar marinade and then larding it with pork fat is a familiar nineteenth-century French treatment for making sheep behave like venison, and the accompanying marinade sauce belongs to the same game-larder tradition. The garnish of tongue slices topped with fried brain croquettes shows the other side of the period's kitchen, in which offal was simply another set of textures a large brigade had the hands to prepare.