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Mutton Chops, Broiled
Pare and neatly flatten six fine, tender, thick mutton chops. Season with a teaspoon salt and two saltspoons white pepper. Lightly oil the broiler with oil. Place the chops on the broiler and cook for five minutes on each side. Dress on a hot dish, crown-shape. Spread a very little butter over them. Decorate the dish with a little fresh watercress and serve.
A plain broiled chop, and the instructions are sound. Two things need translating: the vessel called "the broiler" and the meat itself, which is far less common in American markets than it was in 1906.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon, so two saltspoons is roughly 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper for six chops. The teaspoon of salt is generous but correct for that much meat.
- "The broiler"In this period the broiler was usually a hinged wire grid or gridiron held over coals rather than an oven element, though gas-range broiling ovens existed by 1906. A ridged cast-iron grill pan or an outdoor grill gets you the same direct radiant heat; an overhead oven broiler works but wants the rack set close, within 3-4 inches.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep over roughly two years old, stronger in flavor and coarser in grain. Most butchers now sell lamb only; lamb loin or rib chops substitute directly and, being milder and leaner, may want a minute less per side.
- Thickness drives the timingFive minutes a side suits a fairly thick chop over hot coals; the recipe specifies only "thick." Thinner supermarket chops will be well past pink in that time. For medium-rare, pull them around 130-135F internal and rest three or four minutes.
- Oil the grid, not the meatThe original oils the broiler rather than the chop, which keeps the bars from sticking and puts less fat on the fire. Wipe the grid with a folded, oiled cloth or paper.
- Crown-shapeThe chops are stood on a hot platter with the bones leaning inward against one another, tips up, in a ring. It is purely presentation. "Pare" here means trimming the chops; whether the bone tips were also scraped is not stated.
- YieldSix chops serves three as a main course, or six if it is one course among several.
Broiled mutton chops were the definition of unfussy good cooking in Anglo-American dining rooms of the late nineteenth century, the dish a chophouse existed to serve and the thing a convalescent or a plain eater ordered when everything else on the menu was sauced. Alexander Filippini, who compiled The International Cook Book after long service at Delmonico's in New York, gives many chop variations, and this unadorned version can be read as the baseline the others depart from. The watercress garnish is a period convention rather than decoration for its own sake: a peppery raw green was said to cut the richness of the fat, and it appears beside broiled and grilled meats throughout English and American cookery of the era. Mutton's near-disappearance from American markets came later, and is often attributed to the shrinking of the wool industry and a growing consumer preference for the milder flavor of young lamb.