No. 1639

Neck of Mutton Jugged and Marinated, Thickened with Blood

Collet de Mouton Civet Marinade Lie au Sang

Bone a neck of mutton, remove all the sinews and fat and then cut it up into one and a quarter inch square pieces; lay them in a vessel to season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, sprigs of parsley, minced onions, oil, a little vinegar, bay leaf and thyme; let marinate for two hours, then drain and wipe off the pieces. Heat four ounces of butter in a saucepan, add to it the meat and fry them well, dredge in two spoonfuls of flour and moisten with one pint of red or white wine and stock (No. 194a) in a way that the meat is covered; add a garnished bunch of parsley and leave to cook for an hour and a half, putting in half an hour before serving, some small glazed white onions and cooked mushrooms. The meat being now well done and properly seasoned, take out the parsley and thicken the sauce either with some pig's or chicken's blood, then serve.

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For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A classic civet built on mutton instead of hare: marinated, browned, stewed in wine, and finished with a blood liaison. The finish is where it succeeds or fails.

The hinge: the blood liaisonStir the blood in off the heat, into sauce no hotter than a bare steam, and never let it return to a boil. Boiled blood curdles into gritty specks and the sauce breaks; it should thicken glossy and dark, like a beurre manié done right.
Sourcing the bloodFresh pig's blood is sold by some butchers and at Asian, Caribbean and Eastern European markets, usually frozen and often with salt or citrate added to stop it clotting. Buy it from an inspected source rather than from a backyard slaughter, and use about 1/2 cup, whisked with a spoonful of the vinegar from the marinade to keep it fluid. Chicken blood is rarely found at retail.
Meat substitutionA whole bone-in neck of mutton is a special order. Lamb neck, shoulder or shank meat works identically; figure 2 1/2 to 3 lb boneless after trimming, cut in the specified 1 1/4-inch cubes. Mutton (over two years old) is gamier and wants the full cooking time; lamb may be done in 70 minutes.
SpoonfulsA "spoonful" in Ranhofer is generally taken to mean a tablespoon, so two spoonfuls of flour is about 2 tablespoons — a light thickening, since the blood does the rest of the work.
Stock No. 194aThat cross-reference is Ranhofer's stock recipe. Any unsalted brown stock will do; avoid a heavily reduced demi-glace, which will make the sauce too dark and salty once the wine reduces.
MarinadeThe recipe does not say where the meat should sit for its two hours; refrigerate it, and give it 4 hours or overnight for more effect. Drain and dry the cubes thoroughly or they will steam rather than brown in the butter.
The garnish"Small glazed white onions" are pearl or cipollini onions cooked in butter, a little sugar and stock until shining; "cooked mushrooms" means button mushrooms sautéed separately in butter. Both go in for the last half hour so they hold their shape.
Yield and serviceServes 4 to 6. It is a stew, and wants boiled or steamed potatoes, noodles, or plain rice; the wine in the pot should be the wine on the table.

A Little History

Civet is one of the oldest surviving names in French cookery, generally traced to cive (from Latin cepa, onion), the onions that defined the medieval stew before wine and blood became its signature. By the nineteenth century a civet meant specifically a dark game ragout — hare above all, also venison and wild boar — thickened at the last moment with the animal's own blood, which gives body and a faintly metallic depth no roux imitates. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades and published The Epicurean in 1894, applies the technique to butcher's mutton, a thrifty translation of a hunting dish and a reminder that neck was cheap meat treated with full professional method. He falls back on pig's or chicken's blood, presumably because a domestic sheep is bled at the abattoir, not in the kitchen — a substitution also familiar in French charcuterie.