No. 1629

Boiled Leg of Mutton with Mashed Turnips and Caper Sauce

Gigot de Mouton Bouilli a la Puree de Navets et a la Sauce aux Capres

With Mashed Turnips.—Have a leg of mutton prepared and cooked as explained a la Granville (No. 1628). Put to boil with the leg after it has been in the water for half an hour, two pounds of turnips cut in four; when done mash them to a pulp and pass through a sieve, season with salt, nutmeg and a little sugar and add four ounces of butter, lay this around the meat, serving some clear gravy separately.

With Caper Sauce.—Garnish around the leg with boiled potatoes, and serve with a butter sauce (No. 440) into which nonpareil capers have been added.

← No. 1628 Boiled Leg of Mutton, Granville Mutton No. 1630 Leg of Mutton a la Milanaise—Kernel →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand: the leg itself is cooked at No. 1628, and this entry only supplies two finishes for it. Both hang on the same thing — a gentle poach, never a rolling boil.

The hinge: poach, don't boilDespite the name, a boiled leg is simmered at a bare tremble, around 180-185F, with the surface barely moving. A hard boil squeezes the muscle fibres and gives you dry, stringy meat in a cloudy pot. Figure roughly 15-18 minutes per pound for mutton, less for lamb, and pull it at 145-150F at the thickest point for pink, 160F for a well-done texture.
Mutton itselfMutton is sheep older than a year, and often well over two: strongly flavoured and firm. In the US it is sold mainly through halal and specialist butchers. A 6-8 lb leg of lamb substitutes directly and will cook faster — start checking an hour earlier than you would for mutton.
What No. 1628 suppliesNo. 1628 is not given here; on the title alone it is a plainly boiled leg, presumably in salted water with aromatics. If you are working from this page alone, cover the leg with water, add 1 tablespoon salt per quart, a carrot, an onion stuck with cloves, celery, thyme, bay and parsley stems, and skim carefully for the first fifteen minutes.
The turnipsTwo pounds of turnips quartered and dropped in after the meat has had half an hour will be tender in 25-35 minutes if they are the small white kind; older, larger turnips or rutabaga need longer. Drain them hard and let the steam off before mashing, or the purée will be soupy despite the four ounces of butter.
"Pass through a sieve"A food mill or a ricer does this in a minute. Avoid a blender or food processor — over-working turns the purée slick and loose.
Seasoning the puréeThe salt, nutmeg and "little sugar" are not optional garnish; the sugar counters the mustardy bitterness of the turnip, and nutmeg is a common nineteenth-century seasoning for white root purées. Start with a teaspoon of sugar and a few scrapes of nutmeg for two pounds.
Clear gravy and butter sauce"Clear gravy" is a separate preparation in Ranhofer rather than the pot liquor itself; the strained, thoroughly defatted poaching liquid, reduced if it tastes thin, is a serviceable stand-in. Sauce No. 440 is a butter sauce in the old sense — a pale roux slackened with cooking liquid or water and finished with a good quantity of butter, closer to a velouté than to beurre blanc.
Nonpareil capersNonpareils are the smallest grade, about 7mm, and remain the standard for this sauce. Rinse brined capers, or soak salt-packed ones, and stir them in off the heat so they do not muddy the sauce.
YieldA leg of this size serves 8-10, with plenty of broth left for soup the next day.

A Little History

Boiled leg of mutton with caper sauce is an English tavern and household dish of long standing, and the caper pairing is generally traced to the older practice of serving sharp, briny things with fatty boiled meats u2014 pickled nasturtium buds and samphire stood in for the expensive imported capers in more frugal kitchens. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a full working reference, which is why this entry reads as a cross-reference rather than a recipe: the leg is cooked once, at No. 1628, and then dressed several ways down the page for different tables. The turnip variant is the French half of the equation u2014 pur u00e9e de navets seasoned with nutmeg and a pinch of sugar was standard garniture for boiled and braised mutton u2014 while the capers and boiled potatoes are straight from the English side. That a New York restaurant of the 1890s carried both versions of the same joint says something about how its clientele ate: a French kitchen, a French menu, and a steady demand for the plain boiled mutton of London clubs.