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Mutton Chops, Lilleoise
Neatly trim and flatten six tender mutton chops. Season with half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons pepper and a saltspoon grated nutmeg. Mix on a plate three tablespoons fresh bread crumbs with an ounce lean, finely grated ham, a teaspoon freshly chopped parsley and one saltspoon crushed bay leaf. Dip chops lightly in beaten egg, then roll gently in the mixture, arrange on the broiler and broil each side five minutes. Dress on a hot dish, pour three gills tomato sauce in a sauteuse and let reduce on the fire to half the quantity, pour it around the chops and serve.
A straightforward crumbed chop, but the measurements and the coating both need translating into modern terms.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So the seasoning is half a teaspoon salt, half a teaspoon pepper, a quarter teaspoon nutmeg, and a quarter teaspoon crushed bay leaf in the crumbs.
- GillA gill is half a cup, so three gills is 1½ cups of tomato sauce, reduced to about ¾ cup. That is roughly two tablespoons of finished sauce per chop — enough to pool around them, not to cover them.
- SauteuseA sauteuse is a shallow, straight- or sloping-sided saute pan. Its wide surface is the point: the sauce reduces faster than it would in a deep saucepan. Start it while the chops broil so both are ready at about the same time.
- MuttonMutton means sheep over a year old, strong-flavoured and firmer than lamb; almost no American or British supermarket carries it now. Lamb loin or rib chops are the usual substitute, and being milder they need the nutmeg and bay less urgently, though the seasoning still works.
- Coating, and why it can burnEgg and dry crumbs under direct heat scorch fast. Set the chops several inches from the element rather than tight against it, and use plain fresh breadcrumbs — not the fine dry commercial kind, which colour almost instantly.
- The five minutes a sideFive minutes per side suits a thick chop, about an inch and a quarter, and gives it pink. Thinner supermarket chops of half an inch will be grey and dry by then; go by an internal temperature of 130-135F for medium rare and pull them off early if the crumbs are already brown.
- Ham"Lean, finely grated ham" implies a ham firm and dry enough to grate on a fine rasp so it disappears into the crumbs and seasons them. Prosciutto or a country ham trimmed of fat works; wet boiled sandwich ham will not grate and will only make the coating soggy.
- YieldSix chops serve three as a main course, or six as a single course in a longer meal.
"Lilleoise" appears to be an anglicised spelling of a la lilloise, in the manner of Lille, the city of French Flanders near the Belgian border; the grated ham worked into the crumbs may be what earns the name. Serving a reduced sauce poured around a crumbed item rather than over it is consistent with late nineteenth-century restaurant practice, keeping the crust crisp. The recipe also assumes a tomato sauce already made and prepared in advance, and says nothing about how to make it.