No. 1636

Leg of Mutton with Rice

Gigot de Mouton au Riz

Bone a leg of mutton; remove the aitchbone and the large bone as far as the joint; season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and fill the inside with a pork stuffing as in No. 68, mixing with it half its quantity of boiled and finely chopped ham, as much bread-crumbs as ham, an ounce of chopped onion, a clove of crushed and chopped garlic, and two egg-yolks. Sew up the leg so as to secure the forcemeat enclosed therein. Melt half a pound of fat pork, fry the leg in it, drain off the fat, season, and moisten to three quarters its height with stock (No. 194a), adding to the liquid two medium onions, stuck with two cloves, and four peeled and quartered tomatoes; allow the leg to cook slowly for three hours, then strain off the stock, free it of its fat and take away a third part, returning this to the leg after having untied it. Add to the other two parts, half a pound of Carolina rice and let cook for twenty minutes, then put in some butter and grated cheese, stirring it in with a fork. Dress the leg, glaze it over and decorate the handle bone with a paper frill (No. 10); garnish around with the rice, strain the stock from the leg once more, skim off its fat, reduce to half and serve it in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1635 Leg of Mutton with Puree of Beans Mutton No. 1637 Loin of Mutton Roasted, on the Spit or in th →

For the Modern Kitchen

A braised, boned and stuffed leg served with rice cooked in its own cooking liquor. Ranhofer assumes a professional brigade and cross-references his own numbered recipes, so a few substitutions and one temperature check are needed.

The hinge: cook to temperature, not to the clockThe forcemeat is raw pork and raw egg yolk sealed inside a thick leg, so the centre of the stuffing must reach 165F. Three hours of slow braising will usually get there in a 6-8 lb boned leg, but check with a probe pushed into the stuffing rather than the meat.
MuttonTrue mutton is sheep over two years old, strong-flavoured and firm. It is sold by halal and specialist butchers; a leg of hogget or a large lamb leg is the usual stand-in and will braise in closer to two to two and a half hours.
Boning the legRemove the aitchbone and the femur but leave the shank in place, since the recipe wants a handle bone to frill. A butcher will usually tunnel-bone it for you if asked; the cavity left behind is what holds the stuffing.
The pork stuffing (No. 68)No. 68 is not reproduced here, so its exact composition cannot be checked; a seasoned ground pork forcemeat is the reasonable reading. Roughly 1 lb of coarsely ground fatty pork shoulder, with half that weight in chopped cooked ham, an equal weight of breadcrumbs to the ham, the onion, garlic and two yolks, fills a large leg.
Fat pork and stockThe half-pound of fat pork is salt pork or fresh pork fatback rendered down to brown the leg; a few tablespoons of lard or oil do the same work. The text of stock No. 194a is not given here; treat it as one of Ranhofer's basic stocks, use a good unsalted brown stock and season at the end, as it reduces twice.
"Moisten to three quarters its height"Braising liquid should come three-quarters of the way up the meat, not cover it. Ranhofer specifies only that it cook slowly for three hours, naming neither vessel nor temperature; keep it at a bare simmer, covered, on the stove or in an oven around 300-325F.
Carolina riceA long-grain American rice, the standard fine rice of nineteenth-century kitchens. Any long-grain white rice works; half a pound is about 1 1/4 cups dry, and twenty minutes in the degreased braising liquid is right. Use roughly twice its volume in liquid and finish with butter and grated Parmesan.
GlazingGlazing means brushing the leg with a heavily reduced, syrupy stock and flashing it under high heat until it shines, not adding sugar. The final sauce is the remaining liquor, skimmed and reduced by half.
YieldA stuffed leg on this scale serves eight to ten, with the rice as the only garnish. Let it rest fifteen minutes before removing the trussing string, or the forcemeat will slump.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this dish shows the house style: a French braise given weight and economy by the American larder. Boning and stuffing a leg of mutton was standard grande cuisine practice, letting a tough, strong cut be carved in neat slices and stretched across a large table. The rice cooked in the strained braising liquor and finished with butter and cheese is close to what an Italian kitchen would call a risotto, though Ranhofer does not use the word here; the tomatoes and garlic in the braise point the same way. "Carolina rice" was a prestige long-grain rice of the period, grown in the South Carolina and Georgia lowcountry, and by this date the name was often used loosely as a grade as much as a strict statement of origin. The paper frill on the shank bone was customary on such joints sent to fine dining rooms in the 1890s, a piece of table dress that has almost entirely disappeared.