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Highlander
Cut in half-inch-square pieces a half pound pig's liver, four skinned fresh mutton kidneys, two pounds raw, lean mutton and four ounces raw, lean salt pork. Heat two tablespoons melted butter in a braising pan, add a finely chopped onion and sound, seeded, chopped green pepper, gently brown for four minutes, add all the meat and moisten with a quart of broth. Season with a level tablespoon salt, half teaspoon white pepper and saltspoon grated nutmeg. Tie in a bunch two leeks, two branches parsley, a branch chervil, bean garlic, one sprig each thyme, sage, marjoram, a bay leaf and two cloves, add to pan, cover and let slowly cook for one and a half hours. Add four peeled, crushed red tomatoes and two medium, peeled raw potatoes cut in half-inch squares, mix well, then set in oven for one hour, basting top with its own gravy occasionally. Remove, lift up the bouquet of herbs, dress highlander in deep hot dish and serve.
A braise of mutton with liver and kidney, finished in the oven — straightforward once a few of the book's conventions are decoded. The salt figure is the one number to change before you start.
- The saltA level tablespoon of salt for roughly three pounds of meat, plus four ounces of salt pork and a quart of broth, will be aggressive to modern palates, especially if the broth is commercial and already seasoned. Start with a teaspoon and correct at the end, after the pork has given up its cure.
- "Bean garlic"Almost certainly a clove of garlic, tied into the herb bundle; the odd phrasing may reflect a rendering of the French gousse d'ail. One clove for this quantity is restrained; two or three will not offend.
- SaltspoonConventionally a quarter teaspoon in cookbooks of this period; treat it as a pinch.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Treat it as a moderate oven, around 325-350F, low enough that the liquid barely trembles for the final hour.
- MuttonMature sheep, usually reckoned over two years old (between one and two it is often called hogget), stronger and firmer than lamb, and in most places today stocked mainly by halal and specialist butchers. Lamb shoulder is the practical substitute; it will be sweeter and may be tender before the ninety minutes are up.
- Kidneys and liverSplit the kidneys, cut out the white core and gristle, and soak them in cold water or milk for half an hour. Pig's liver is the most assertive of the common livers — half a pound in this pot is a seasoning rather than a main component, and some of it will break down into the sauce.
- The braising panA heavy pot with a tight lid that can go from stovetop to oven — a Dutch oven does exactly this job. The instruction to baste the top with its own gravy assumes you lift the lid for the oven stage; keep it uncovered then so the surface colours.
- Chervil and the bouquetChervil is seasonal and wilts fast; if you cannot find it, add a little extra parsley and a pinch of tarragon rather than leaving a gap. Tie the whole bundle with kitchen string so it lifts out in one piece as directed.
- YieldAround three pounds of meat plus potatoes serves six. It should reheat well, the liver having thickened the gravy.
This comes from Alexander Filippini's The International Cook Book, an early twentieth-century compendium arranged alphabetically, and "Highlander" looks more like a book title than a Scottish one. The Scottish credentials are in the raw materials: mutton, sheep's kidneys, a little cured pork and potatoes, the frugal Highland habit of cooking the offal alongside the muscle so nothing from the carcass is wasted, which is much the same logic often said to lie behind haggis. Everything else is French. The bouquet of leeks, parsley, chervil, thyme, sage, marjoram, bay and cloves is a classical bouquet garni in full dress, and the method — sweat the aromatics, moisten with broth, cover, then finish in the oven while basting — is standard hotel braising of the period. Filippini spent his career in New York's Delmonico's kitchens, and pages like this show what the "international" cookery of grand American restaurants actually was: a French technique applied to a foreign larder and given a picturesque name for the menu.