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Brace English Mutton Chops
Have three double one-inch-thick English mutton chops from a tender saddle of mutton. Remove the red skin over the fat, carefully fold the flanks inside the breast, place between a towel and gently flatten with a cleaver. Mix on a plate a tablespoon oil with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper; repeatedly roll the chops in the seasoning, then arrange on the broiler and briskly broil them for seven minutes on each side. Dress on a dish and keep hot. Carefully skin three mutton kidneys, split in two, roll in the same seasoning as the chops, arrange on a double broiler and broil for one and a half minutes on each side. Dress the kidneys on top of the chops, decorate with a little watercress and serve.
A plain chop-house grill that depends entirely on the quality of the meat and on high, dry heat. Two things need translating: the cut, which no longer exists under this name, and the "broiler", which in 1900 meant a hinged wire grid over live coals rather than an electric element.
- The hinge: fierce heat, dry surfaceThe oil-and-seasoning roll is there to season and to keep the meat from sticking, not to marinate. Get the grill or pan properly hot before the chops go on, and do not move them until they have taken colour, or the fat will steam instead of crisping.
- What a saddle chop isA double one-inch chop from the saddle is what a butcher now calls a double loin chop or a mutton/lamb barnsley chop — cut across the whole saddle so it has loin on both sides of the backbone. Ask for it by that description; it will need ordering.
- Mutton versus lambMutton means sheep over about two years old, stronger in flavour and firmer. It is sold by halal and specialist butchers and by some farm suppliers; ordinary supermarket lamb is a younger, milder substitute and will cook a shade faster.
- "Brace" and the count of threeA brace strictly means a pair, and the title sits oddly against the three chops and three kidneys in the text. Treat the recipe as written for three and adjust to the number of eaters.
- The flanksFolding the thin flank inward and securing it against the eye of the meat keeps it from charring to leather. A short skewer or cocktail stick through the folded tail holds it better than trust alone.
- Timing and donenessSeven minutes a side over coals suits a full inch-thick double chop; on a domestic grill or ridged pan check at five. Mutton is at its best pink at the bone, around 130-135F at the centre, and can rest while the kidneys cook — about three minutes at the timings given here.
- KidneysPeel off the membrane, split lengthwise, and snip out the white core, which the original does not mention. A minute and a half a side is right — kidneys turn from tender to rubbery quickly, so pull them while still faintly rosy inside.
- Yield and servingThree double chops feed three generously. Watercress is the whole garnish here; maitre d'hotel butter and floury potatoes are common accompaniments to a chop-house grill.
The double mutton chop with a grilled kidney on top is associated with the Victorian and Edwardian London chop house — dining rooms where meat was grilled to order and served with little more than watercress and mustard. The double cut, thick and bone-in, takes hard heat without drying, and the kidney would have come from the same animal. That this appears in an international cook book under an English heading reflects the period habit of organising hotel repertoires by national label. Mutton was ordinary meat around 1900 on both sides of the Atlantic; its near-disappearance from English-speaking markets over the twentieth century, in favour of young lamb, is the main reason a recipe this simple now reads as exotic.