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Leg of Mutton
(Gascony Style.) The province of Gascony, in the south of France, is renowned for good cooking, just as Normandy is in the north. Boil 2 cloves of garlic in several waters, to remove the crude taste, chop them with 6 boned anchovies, and rub the mixture into slits cut across the skin of a nice leg of mutton. Dredge the surface closely with bread-crumbs, put into a pan holding 1/2 pint of consomme and bake it 2 hours, basting it often with the sauce. Serve with a border of vegetables, or spaghetti, previously cooked and seasoned. The anchovies and garlic give a peculiar flavor much esteemed by those who like bourgeois cookery.
A straightforward studded roast leg, but the original assumes mutton, a hearth-era oven with no dial, and salted anchovies that need handling. A few adjustments make it work.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given; the book simply says 'bake it 2 hours'. As a modern working figure, try a moderate oven around 350F, watching that the crumb coating does not blacken before the centre is done.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is mature sheep, generally reckoned at over a year and often nearer two — stronger, leaner, and slower to cook. A 5 to 7 lb leg of lamb is the practical substitute and will likely be done before two hours. Roast to an internal temperature of 130–135F at the thickest part for pink; 145F with a rest is the USDA minimum for lamb and eats as about medium. Start checking at the 75-minute mark.