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Lamb or Mutton Stew
cup carrot cup celery 1 quart stock or water 6 potatoes 1 teaspoon salt teaspoon pepper Cut meat into 2-inch cubes. Reserve the tenderest pieces of meat. Place the tougher portions and bone in cold water or stock. Put over slow fire and heat gradually to boiling point. Dredge reserved meat with flour, and sauté in marrow drippings, or pork fat, and add to stew. Let simmer about two hours. In same frying pan brown onion, cut in slices, celery, and carrot diced. Cook until meat and vegetables are nearly done, then remove bones, skim off fat and add potatoes which have been parboiled 10 minutes, and drained. Season. Add boiling water if needed. Ten minutes before potatoes are done, add dumplings. Thicken gravy after removing meat, vegetables and dumplings. 2 cups flour
A classic two-stage stew: the tough cuts and bone go into cold liquid to make their own broth, while the better meat is floured and browned for flavour. The method is sound; the quantities need filling in.
- Meat quantityNo weight is given for the lamb or mutton. For a quart of stock and six potatoes, reckon on 2 to 2 1/2 lb of bone-in shoulder or neck, which yields roughly six servings.
- Cold start, slow heatThe instruction to put the tougher meat and bone into cold liquid and bring it up gradually is the hinge of the dish. It draws gelatin and flavour out of the bone; dropping the meat into boiling stock seizes the surface and gives you a thinner broth.
- Marrow drippings and pork fatBoth were standard rendered fats in a period kitchen. Beef dripping, lard or a neutral oil will brown the floured meat just as well; butter alone will scorch at the heat needed.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep over a year old, strongly flavoured and much tougher, and is rarely sold in supermarkets. Lamb shoulder needs the full two hours; true mutton may want closer to three.
- Parboiled potatoesTen minutes in boiling water part-cooks them and the draining sheds starchy water, so they need only a short spell in the stew at the end. Use a waxy variety and cut them in even chunks.
- Vegetable amountsThe list gives carrot and celery by the cup, but the fractions are missing from the text; onion appears in the method with no quantity at all. One large onion, two carrots and two celery ribs is a workable reading.
- DumplingsThey steam on the surface of the stew for the last ten minutes and the pot should stay covered and at a bare simmer. A standard drop dumpling is two cups flour, four teaspoons baking powder, a teaspoon of salt, about two tablespoons fat and three-quarters of a cup of milk.
- Thickening at the endLift out meat, vegetables and dumplings first, then whisk in a flour-and-water slurry or a beurre manié and boil a minute or two to cook out the raw starch. Thickening around the solids gives you lumps and broken potatoes.
Stew of this kind is a long-standing use for the cheap end of a sheep -- the neck, shoulder and shank, cuts that reward long wet cooking and do poorly roasted. What distinguishes this version from a plain boiled stew is the divided treatment: part of the meat simmered for broth, part floured and browned in fat for colour and depth. The recipe leans toward economy, stretching a small amount of meat with root vegetables, potatoes and dumplings to feed a family.