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Brochette of Mutton, Devilled
Pick all meat off leg of mutton left over from yesterday and cut it in square pieces three-quarters of an inch wide and one-quarter inch thick. Cut as many pieces of bacon as mutton, of the same size but thinner, and arrange on six skewers alternately. Place on a plate a devilled butter repeatedly roll brochette in it, then lightly turn in bread crumbs. Arrange on broiler, broil for five minutes on each side, remove, dress on a hot dish and serve.
A leftover-roast dish that depends on two things the original leaves unsaid: what the devilled butter is, and how hot the broiler runs.
- Devilled butterThe book assumes you know it. Recipes of the period vary, but it is generally softened butter worked with mustard, cayenne, salt and pepper, often with a dash of Worcestershire. Something like 4 tablespoons butter to 1 tablespoon mustard and a good pinch of cayenne will coat six skewers.
- BrochetteSimply the skewer, and by extension what is on it. Metal skewers are correct here; if you use bamboo, soak them 30 minutes so they survive the broiler.
- Cut sizeThree-quarters of an inch square and a quarter inch thick is deliberately thin. The mutton is already cooked, so the goal is to crisp the coating and render the bacon, not to cook the meat through.
- Broil, not bake"Arrange on broiler" means a gridiron over live coals or under a gas salamander. Use an overhead broiler on high with the rack about 4 inches from the element, or a hot grill.
- TimingFive minutes a side will scorch the crumbs and dry out already-roasted meat under a modern broiler. Watch it: 2 to 3 minutes a side, turning when the crumbs are brown and the bacon fat is running, is usually enough.
- CrumbsFine crumbs, pressed on lightly, work best. Too heavy a coating falls off under the heat; the butter beneath is what holds them.
- MuttonMature sheep is rare in most markets now. Leftover leg of lamb behaves the same way, though it is milder and the mustard will read stronger against it.
- YieldSix skewers, serving three as a main course with potatoes or two if the skewers are generous. Serve on a heated dish; the bacon fat congeals fast on a cold plate.
Devilling " " coating something in mustard, cayenne and pepper before applying fierce heat " " was a fixture of English cookery from the early nineteenth century onward, and the name is generally traced to the infernal associations of anything that hot. It attached itself above all to leftovers: devilled bones, devilled kidneys, devilled turkey legs after Christmas. This recipe belongs squarely to that tradition, and its opening phrase, "left over from yesterday," tells you what it was for. Threading it with bacon on skewers, coating it in spiced butter and crumbs, and searing it hard turned cold roast into something that could be sent to table on a hot dish without apology " " the same logic that produced rissoles, croquettes and hash in the same books.