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Leg of Mutton with Oysters
Have the butcher bone the leg, afterward sawing the bones into short lengths. Put these bones in a deep saucepan, cover with two quarts of water, add a bit of bay leaf, one-half of a small carrot, sliced, and one small onion, cover and simmer until reduced one-half. Wash and drain two dozen large oysters and cut into bits, add one cupful of bread crumbs, one-half teaspoonful of onion juice, onehalf of a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of cayenne and onequarter of a cupful of melted butter. Stuff the meat with this and skewer into shape; lay in a deep 'pan on a bed of thinly sliced (and very few) onions and carrots, strain over it the broth from the bones, add one-half of a teaspoonful of salt, cover tightly and cook in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes to the pound-thirty,if liked very well done. Strain, thicken and color the gravy with a little vegetable coloring and serve in a separate boat.
A braised stuffed leg, and the stuffing is the point: two dozen oysters chopped into buttered crumbs, sealed inside the meat where they steam rather than shrink. A few of the instructions assume a butcher, a coal range and a bottle of gravy browning on the shelf.
- Mutton means lamb nowTrue mutton (generally sheep over two years, though the definitions vary) is hard to find outside specialist butchers. A boned leg of lamb, roughly 5-6 lb after boning, behaves much the same way but is milder and may cook a little faster; check temperature rather than trusting the clock alone.
- Moderate ovenUsually read as about 350F, though the period range runs 325-375F. At 25 minutes to the pound a 5 lb boned leg runs about 2 hours, which with the tight cover is a braise, not a roast -- the meat will be sliceable and well done rather than pink.
- The bone stock is the braising liquidTwo quarts reduced by half gives one quart, and that quart is what makes the gravy worth serving separately. Ask the butcher for the bones sawn short so they fit the pan and give up their gelatin; roasting them first is not in the original but does no harm.
- Oysters, cut into bitsCut them coarsely and drain them well, as the recipe directs; oysters left whole in a long covered braise are apt to toughen and to shed liquid into the crumbs. The recipe discards the liquor rather than using it in the stuffing.
- Onion juiceGrate a small onion on a fine grater and press the pulp through a sieve; half a teaspoon of the juice is what you want, not the pulp, which would make the stuffing watery.
- Skewer into shapeIn practice this means rolling the boned leg around the stuffing and tying it at intervals with butcher's twine, then a skewer or two through the open ends. Trussed loosely, stuffing escapes into the braising liquid.
- Vegetable coloringA period bottled browning, most likely caramel-based. Kitchen Bouquet or a spoonful of dark caramel does much the same job, or leave it out and let the reduced bone stock carry its own colour.
- YieldA stuffed 5-6 lb boned leg serves eight to ten. It slices better after fifteen minutes' rest.
Oyster stuffing for a joint of meat looks extravagant now and would have looked like nothing of the kind when the recipe was written: oysters were still cheap, abundant and shipped inland by rail in barrels, which is why American cookbooks of the period put them in turkey dressing, in soups, in patties, and here inside a boned leg. The technique of boning a leg, stuffing it and braising it covered is old and widespread, and it solved a real problem with mutton, which is lean, strongly flavoured and unforgiving of dry roasting. The instruction to have the butcher bone the leg and saw the bones is a reminder of how these books were used: the butcher was a daily contact who did the skilled knife work, and the cook's job began at the kitchen door. The bottle of "vegetable coloring" at the end is a mark of a kitchen already stocked with commercial brownings and bottled sauces.