No. 1654

Shoulder of Mutton with Turnips

Epaule de Mouton aux Navets

Bone a shoulder of mutton keeping the shank bone on; remove all sinews from the inside meats as well as the fat, and lard with medium lardons (No. 2, Fig. 52); season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then roll it up and tie. Put some clarified butter in a saucepan with the shoulder, fry it to a fine color, then moisten with stock (No. 194a) or water, adding some medium-sized carrots cut in four, and two medium onions, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme, bay leaf, and a clove of garlic, let simmer for two hours. Withdraw the carrots, onions, and parsley, and replace them by some turnips pared into olive or clove of garlic shape, and fried in butter with a little sugar; let the whole cook slowly for an hour and a half, making three and a half hours in all, skim off the fat, season to taste, and dress the shoulder with the turnips around, then reduce the stock, strain, pour part of it over the meat and serve what remains in a sauce-boat.

← No. 1653 Shoulder of Mutton with Rice Mutton No. 1655 Sheep's Tails with Olives →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's braised shoulder is straightforward once the archaic butchery language is translated. The hinge is the two-stage cooking: aromatics carry the first two hours, then come out and the turnips go in, so they finish glazed rather than collapsed.

Larding"Lard with medium lardons" means threading strips of pork fatback through the meat with a larding needle. Modern shoulder is fatty enough that this is optional; if you skip it, keep a thin fat cap on the outside instead of trimming all the fat as directed.
Boning and rollingAsk the butcher to tunnel-bone the shoulder and leave the shank attached, or bone it fully and tie it into a compact roll. A boneless 4-5 lb shoulder roll serves six to eight.
Stock No. 194aThat cross-reference points to one of Ranhofer's stock recipes. Any unsalted beef or lamb stock works; water is his own stated alternative and produces a lighter but thinner sauce.
Total timeThree and a half hours of simmering is not excessive for shoulder, but check at two and a half hours. Modern lamb is younger and leaner than the mature mutton he assumed, and it can shred before the clock runs out.
Simmer, not boilKeep the liquid at a bare tremble, around 190F, uncovered or partly covered. A rolling boil will squeeze the roll tight and leave the meat stringy.
Turnips "in olive shape"Turned into small tapered ovals, roughly the size of a large olive, so they cook evenly and hold shape. Cut them slightly larger than you think you need; an hour and a half of braising takes them down.
The sugarA teaspoon or so in the butter as the turnips fry, enough to caramelize lightly and blunt the bitterness turnips develop when boiled. Do not let it darken past pale amber.
Finishing the sauceSkim the fat thoroughly, then reduce the strained liquid to sauce consistency. Ranhofer seasons to taste after skimming; go carefully with salt, since reduction concentrates whatever the stock already carried.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book carries the classical French repertoire into an American kitchen alongside American ingredients and Delmonico originals of its own, which is why the dish appears here under its French name first. Epaule de mouton aux navets is a standard of nineteenth-century bourgeois cooking, and the pairing is agricultural as much as culinary: turnips were a cheap winter root grown in rotation with the pasture that fed the sheep, and their slight bitterness cuts the richness of mature mutton. Note that Ranhofer means mutton and not lamb -- adult sheep meat, strongly flavored and firm, was still ordinary market fare in America in the 1890s and largely disappeared from it over the following century. The shoulder was the thrifty roasting joint, tougher than the leg and better suited to the long moist braise given here, and the neighboring recipes in this section, including sheep's tails with olives, show how completely the whole animal was still being used in a first-class restaurant kitchen.