No. 2530

Leg of Mutton a la Garrison

Gigot de Mouton a la Garrison

Line a buttered saucepan with onions, carrots and slices of round of veal, slices of fat pork and ham; in the middle lay a leg of mutton having the thick loin end boned, and add a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, also two boned calves' feet; moisten with stock (No. 194a), white wine and Madeira wine, a pint of each; let fall to a glaze and remoisten with stock; when it begins to boil skim and cover with a sheet of paper; push into the oven for four or five hours until the leg is thoroughly cooked, then transfer it to an oval vessel and leave till cold. Have a few dozen carrots and turnips cut in balls, also some small onions; blanch these and cook each kind separately in broth (No. 194a); when fallen to a glaze allow them to cool, thickening with a little jelly (No. 103). The leg being cold, trim it nicely, glaze over with meat glaze (No. 402), dress it in the center of a dish and surround with the jellied vegetables and jelly cut in eighth of an inch squares arranged in clusters. Decorate the leg with anchovy fillets, chervil and tarragon, dipped in half-set jelly, and surround by horseradish ribbons (No. 98). Skim the fat from the stock, add a seasoning of oil, vinegar, salt, mignonette, capers and gherkins, and serve in a sauce-boat when cold. Place on the bone the silver handle shown in Fig. 164.

← No. 2529 Chicken Legs Shaped As Ducklings Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2531 Lobster or Spiny Lobster a la Ravigote →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a braise disguised as a cold buffet centerpiece: the leg is cooked slowly in a lined pan, cooled, glazed, and set off with jellied vegetables and chopped aspic. The braising liquid does double duty as the gelatin source and the sauce.

The hinge: the calves' feetThe two boned calves' feet are not garnish, they are the setting agent. Their collagen is what lets the strained braising liquid firm into cuttable jelly and lets the meat glaze cling. If you cannot get calves' feet, pig's trotters do the same job; unflavored gelatin bloomed into the reduced stock is the fallback, but the mouthfeel is thinner.
"Let fall to a glaze"Reduce the wine and stock until it is a syrupy film on the bottom of the pan and just short of catching, then remoisten with fresh stock. The phrase recurs later for the vegetables, so the dish calls for the same move twice; the first reduction is where the liquid gains colour and depth.
Oven temperatureRanhofer gives no temperature; four to five hours for a whole leg implies a slow oven, and something around 300F is a reasonable modern equivalent. The sheet of paper covers the pan so the exposed surface does not dry. The liquid should barely tremble.
Mutton versus lambMutton is older sheep, generally reckoned over a year or two, strongly flavored and tough enough to want the long cooking. A leg of lamb at the same temperature will be done well before five hours and dries or falls apart if pushed. Modern legs typically run around 5-7 lb; mutton legs generally ran larger.
The liningOnions, carrots, veal, fat pork and ham beneath the meat both keep the leg off the metal and enrich the liquid. They are not part of the finished dish; lift them out once the cooking liquid has been recovered for the sauce.
MignonetteMignonette pepper is coarsely cracked white peppercorn, not ground pepper. In the finishing sauce it is meant to be felt against the tongue alongside the capers and gherkins.
The cross-referencesNo. 194a is Ranhofer's stock, called broth as well when the vegetables are cooked in it; No. 103 is a jelly, No. 402 a meat glaze, No. 98 horseradish cut in ribbons. Any good gelatinous veal stock, clarified aspic and glace de viande will stand in.
CoolingThe instruction to "leave till cold" assumed a cold larder. Cool the leg in its vessel only until it stops steaming, then refrigerate; a large joint sitting out at room temperature for hours is the one part of this method that has not aged well.
Yield and serviceA whole leg dressed this way will serve a dozen or more as a cold course. Most of the work except the final decoration can be done a day ahead, and the jelly wants long enough -- several hours to overnight -- to set firm and clear before it is chopped into squares.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of the food he served over three decades at Delmonico's in New York, and it belongs to a section on garnished cold dishes that existed to fill a buffet table at a ball or a late supper. The technique is classic gigot braisé: braise, chill, glaze, decorate with cut anchovy, chervil and tarragon fixed in half-set jelly, then plant a silver manche à gigot on the shank bone so a carver can hold it. Ranhofer routinely named dishes for patrons, regiments, hotels and occasions, and the origin of "à la Garrison" is not documented in the book itself; the name tells you more about the naming habit than about the dish.