2 good-sized onions previously fried, thicken with flour, and add a
little Harvey sauce and soy, then strain. Put the meat (which should
be cut into nice slices, but not too thin) into the gravy, and let
it heat thoroughly; just before serving, stir in whilst on the fire a
good-sized piece of butter. Add pepper and salt.
(_e_) Fry in a saucepan 3 small onions and 3 small slices bacon or
ham until they are brown; then add a little more than ½ pint water,
and thicken it with flour; then strain it, and add it to the meat,
with a little Harvey’s sauce; pepper and salt to taste. It will take
about an hour to hash.
(_f_) Cut the mutton into nice slices, free from skin and fat,
and dredge each slice on both sides with flour; take 6 good-sized
mushrooms, trim them, cut each into 4 pieces, and put them into a
stewpan to stew, with a small piece of butter; add a little good
stock, some pepper and salt, and, when sufficiently done, put in the
meat. Let it heat through slowly, stirring frequently to prevent
burning; but be careful that it does not boil, or the meat will be
hard; and, as soon as the flour loses its raw taste and thickens the
hash, it is done, and should be served immediately with sippets of
neatly cut thin toast or fried bread round the dish.
Irish stew.--(_a_) Cut up into cutlets about 3 lb. best end of a neck
of mutton, saw off the chine bone, and trim off the fat; season the
cutlets well with pepper and salt, and put them with the bones into a
stewpan, just covering them with cold water; stew gently for ½ hour,
remove from the fire, skim the fat from the gravy, and then return it
with the chops into the stewpan; add about 8 potatoes cut in halves,
4 onions sliced, 2 turnips, and 1½ pint of either stock or water;
cover the stewpan, and simmer gently for 1½-2 hours. Serve with the
potatoes in the centre of the dish, the cutlets arranged all round,
and with the onions and gravy poured over.
(_b_) For a more economical stew, take the scrag of mutton, together
with any trimmings, bones, &c., from the best end. To 1 lb. meat put
2 lb. old potatoes, peeled and cut in pieces, with 2 onions sliced,
pepper and salt, cover with cold water or weak stock, and simmer
gently for 2 hours; when half done add a few whole potatoes, and when
the ingredients are well amalgamated skim off superfluous fat, and
serve very hot.
(_c_) Take any thin pieces of mutton that have been cut off the
loin or breast, and cut them in pieces 4 in. square. Put them in a
stewpan, and cover them with boiling water. Add 2 doz. whole onions,
pepper and salt, put on the cover closely, and draw it to the side
of the fire, and let it boil slowly for 1 hour. Add a little boiling
water to it. Wash and pare 2 doz. potatoes, put them in the stewpan
amongst the mutton, and let them boil till quite soft. Stir the
potatoes with the mutton till it becomes smooth, then dish it hot.
(_d_) Put some slices of cold boiled corned beef (never fresh), into
a stewpan with a good deal of water or thin stock, 2 large onions
sliced, and some cold boiled potatoes (whole), a little pepper. Stew
gently until the potatoes are quite soft and have taken up nearly all
the gravy; some will break, but they should be as whole as possible.
Turn all out on a flat dish and serve. (M. M. F.)
Kidneys.--(_a_) À la maître d’hôtel.--Plunge some mutton kidneys in
boiling water; open them down the centre, but do not separate them,
peel, and pass a skewer across them to keep them open; pepper, salt,
and dip them into melted butter; broil them over a clear fire on
both sides, cooking the cut side first; remove the skewers, have
ready some maître d’hôtel butter, viz. butter beaten up with chopped
parsley, salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice; put a small piece
into the hollow of each kidney, and serve very hot.
(_b_) Devilled.--Skin and parboil the kidneys, split them in halves
without separating them, dip them in liquefied butter, and sprinkle
pepper and salt with a judicious proportion of cayenne over them;
place them, spread open, in a double gridiron, and broil either in
front of or on a brisk fire. Serve hot, placing on each kidney a
piece of butter into which has been worked pepper, salt, cayenne, and
minced parsley in due proportions.
(_c_) Fried.--Split asunder, and then free from skin and fat;
sprinkle them with salt and cayenne pepper, and having put them in
the frying-pan, which must be well heated, pour some clarified butter
over them. Fry them over a brisk fire, place them in a dish, or upon
slices of fried toast; make in the pan some gravy mixed with ketchup,
or any sauce which is preferred, and pour it into the dish with the
kidneys.
(_d_) Ditto.--For a breakfast dish they should be first skinned and
cut open lengthwise down to the root, but without quite separating
them. Then season them with pepper and salt, and fry them in butter
for about 8 minutes, turning them when they are half done. Serve them
very hot, each one on a small round piece of buttered toast, a tiny
piece of butter being put upon each kidney.
(_e_) Ditto.--Take six kidneys, remove the skin, and cut them into
quarters, fry them in butter for 5 minutes over a bright fire,
powdering them over with flour; turn them a moment, in order that the
flour may be well cooked. Throw in ½ glass white wine, some mushrooms
ready prepared, some chopped parsley, a little shallot, pepper and
salt, all to cook in the frying-pan for 8 minutes, stirring it during
the time; then serve at once.
(_f_) Grilled.--Cut 3 kidneys in half, dip them in an egg previously
beaten up with salt and pepper; pass them in white breadcrumbs; put a
piece of butter the size of an egg to melt; when melted, dip in the
kidneys and pass them again in breadcrumbs, then grill before a slow
fire and serve with sauce piquante on a rich gravy. (Jane Burtenshaw.)
(_g_) Put upon a silver skewer about 6 in. long with ornamental head,
and cook in a dish before the fire with a little bacon. The one
imparts flavour to the other; they must be served up together.
(_h_) Stewed.--Cut them (after carefully skinning them) into halves,
or, if large, into quarters, and simmer them gently in rich stock
for 2-3 hours at least. The slower they are done the better, as they
should be quite tender. Then take as much of the stock as is required
for the dish in which they are to be served, thicken it with a little
flour, add a little seasoning and a flavouring of mushroom ketchup,
a dash of Worcester sauce and a teaspoonful of sugar, and let it
just boil up. Then add a large wineglass of claret, and pour over
the kidneys. There should be plenty of gravy, but not so much that
the kidneys swim in it. If only a small dish is required, a wall of
mashed potatoes may be put round the dish, with the kidneys in the
middle; otherwise a great many are required to make it look nice. A
garnish of fried sippets is an improvement.
(_i_) Toast.--Chop very fine some kidneys and a little of the
surrounding fat; season with salt, pepper, a little cayenne pepper,
and grated lemon peel; warm this mixture with a little butter, then
place on thin slices of toast, first beating up and adding one egg to
the kidneys, place the toast in a dish with a little butter; brown
them in an oven, and serve very hot. This is a very appetising little
dish.
Kromeskies.--Cut some pieces of fat bacon as thinly as possible, in
size 1½ in. by 2 in., lay them flat, place a small piece of mince on
each; roll up tightly, taking care that the mince does not escape;
put aside in a cold place, dip each in batter, and fry a light brown
colour. Serve with fried parsley.
Lamb Pie (Agneau).--Cut your lamb in thin slices, and season it with
cloves, mace, nutmeg, sugar, salt, and a little small pepper, and
lay it in your coffin (pie crust), and lay on it and between it a
few raisins of the sun stoned, and a few currants, and a few skirret
roots boiled and blanched, and the marrow of 2 or 3 bones, candied
lemon, dates, and dried citron, preserved barberries, and candied
lettuce, and sliced lemon, and some butter. Close your pie, and when
it is baked let the caudle be white wine verjuice and sugar beaten
up with the yolks of 3 or 4 eggs, and set it on the fire, and keep
stirring it till it begins to be thick; then put it in the pie, shake
it together, scrape on plenty of sugar, and send it up.
Lambs’ Tails.--Trim the tails. Place some slices of bacon in a
saucepan, over them a layer of onions and carrots sliced, then the
tails; then a clove of garlic, a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, and
some parsley tied up in a bundle, salt to taste, a few cloves, and
some whole pepper. Place the saucepan over the fire for 10 minutes,
then add 1 glass sherry and about 1 pint stock or water, and let the
whole simmer gently for 2-3 hours. Take out the tails, strain the
liquor; let it reduce almost to a glaze, put back the tails in it to
get warm, and serve with a purée of spinach or sorrel.
Leg of Mutton. (_a_) Boiled.--Cut the leg of mutton cleanly across
the meat and bone from the shank down, with as much meat as will
suffice for the meal. Rub it and flour it all over, but specially
the cut meat surface. Plunge it at once into a saucepan or pot of
boiling water to cover it, together with some salt, a few grains of
pepper, and a bunch of parsley. Draw away from the fire, and allow
the water to cool almost completely; then put once more on the fire,
and cook slowly according to weight, till quite done to taste. Serve
with parsley, onions, caper, sorrel, or any sauce preferred; garnish
with meat or potato rissoles. The flour and the plunging into boiling
water will prevent the juice from escaping, and the meat will cut
just as finely as from a whole boiled leg of mutton.
(_b_) Braised.--Take a small leg of mutton, trim it close of all
superfluous fat, saw the shank bone short off, make an incision where
it joins the other bone, bend it in, and tie up the leg with string.
Line the bottom of a braising pan, just large enough to hold all the
ingredients, with slices of fat bacon; place the leg on this, add
2 onions stuck with 6 cloves, 3 carrots cut in pieces, a bundle of
sweet herbs, whole pepper and salt to taste; pack all these things
round the leg, put 2 slices bacon on the top of all, and set the pan
with the lid on the fire for about 15 minutes. Be careful it does not
catch, then pour in enough common cold stock or water just to cover
over the contents, put a piece of buttered paper on the top, then
the lid, and, having placed some hot embers on that, set the whole
to braise on a gentle fire for about 3½ hours. Strain off a small
portion of the liquor, free it from fat, reduce it on the fire not
quite to a glaze, place the leg in the dish, pour the reduced liquor
over it, and round it a stiff purée of dried haricot beans.
(_c_) Roast.--For a 7 o’clock dinner, hang your mutton before the
fire, but 3 yd. distance from it, by 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Wind
up the jack, and let it just be under the influence of the fire, but
no nearer, for 1 hour; then edge it a little nearer, until it is time
really to begin roasting it, and then pay it constant attention until
it goes to table. Dredge it well, so as to froth it, and preserve the
juices, and baste it incessantly. Continue to dredge and baste it,
until within 10 minutes of serving; then roll a piece of butter the
size of a walnut in flour, and make it into a rich paste, and pick
little bits off and stick them all over the leg of mutton, and let
them melt over it for 10 minutes. Do not touch it with the basting
ladle again. Then dish it on a really hot dish, not one that has been
so hastily heated that it as quickly cools, but let dish and plates
be heated well through. Never pour the gravy over the joint; if you
do, you wash off all the brown and frothy appearance and taste that
proper care in roasting should and does produce.
Loin. (_a_) Braised.--Bone and trim off from a loin of mutton all
superfluous fat, lard the thin part, and roll it round; lay the joint
in a stewpan over some slices of fat bacon, add whole pepper and salt
to taste, an onion stuck with cloves, 2 sliced carrots, and a bunch
of sweet herbs; moisten with stock, and let it braise gently for
an hour or so. When done, strain the gravy, free it from fat, pour
it over the joint in the dish, and serve garnished with vegetables
plainly boiled.
(_b_) Stewed.--Select a loin with the flap on; it must not be a fat
loin. Take off some of the fat, carefully remove the bones, which
requires a very sharp knife; see that none of the lean meat is taken
off at the same time. When boned, roll it up tightly, tie it round
with broad tape, and skewer it also. Before serving, remove the tape;
but it will be necessary to keep it skewered together. Place it in
a stewpan with ¼ pint port or claret, and something less than 1 qt.
stock or water. If the meat is fried a light-brown before stewing it
is a great improvement. Add a small bouquet of sweet herbs, a carrot,
turnip, an onion, a blade of mace, a tablespoonful of ketchup, a
dessertspoonful of anchovy sauce, a teaspoonful of salt, and ½
teaspoonful pepper. Simmer all for 3 hours as gently as possible.
Pour the gravy away from the meat, skim off all the fat, add a glass
more wine and a tablespoonful of red currant jelly, thicken with
a ball of flour and butter, rewarm the meat, and pour the gravy
over when it is served. Garnish with carrot, neatly shaped with a
vegetable cutter, and sliced lemon.
Minced Mutton.--Take some meat from a joint of roast, boiled, or
braised mutton; remove the skin and outside parts, mince it very
fine; put a small piece of butter into a stewpan, when melted add
½ tablespoonful flour; stir 2-3 minutes over the fire; add 1 gill
well-flavoured stock; when boiling put in the mince; add salt,
pepper, a little grated nutmeg, chopped parsley, a few leaves of
thyme, also finely minced, and the yolk of 1 egg; stir all on the
fire for some minutes; then serve with bread sippets or croquettes of
potatoes. If put aside until cold this mince can be used in various
ways.
Neck of Mutton.--(_a_) A la Duchesse.--Procure a whole neck of
mutton, that is, the neck not divided down the middle, but cut entire
from the sheep. This will be the scrags united, and will weigh about
3 lb. It must be perfectly fresh. Having well washed the neck, dry,
flour, and fry it, turning it about until nicely browned, then place
it in a deep stewpan or in the soup kettle. Cover it with nicely
seasoned stock, and put in 6 onions, 2 turnips, and 1 carrot. Cover
the pot close, and let it simmer until the vegetables are tender,
as they will be in 1½-2 hours; take them out and set them aside
to garnish the neck, which will take 4-5 hours’ gentle simmering.
When done it should be as tender as chicken, and sufficient time
for cooking should always be allowed, as it is rather improved than
otherwise by standing at a low heat when finished. When the neck is
done take it out of the gravy, which set aside to cool in a pan of
cold water, in order that all the fat may be readily removed. Keep
the neck hot in the meantime, by covering it close in the pot in
which it was cooked. Having taken the fat off the gravy put it into
a stewpan, and let it boil rapidly without the lid, until reduced to
about a pint. If it is not then thick enough, add a teaspoonful of
Brown and Polson’s corn flour and one of flour, mixed smooth in 2
tablespoonfuls of cold water or stock. This done, return the neck to
its gravy, and let it simmer gently for ½ hour. Mince the vegetables
cooked with the meat, place them in a stewpan with a little piece of
butter, shake them over the fire until thoroughly hot; arrange them
neatly in little heaps on the dish round the neck. Peas, asparagus
tops, or sprigs of cauliflower, cooked separately, may be added to
the above vegetables. They not only make an improvement, but look
pretty. The carver will cut the meat from the bone longitudinally in
large handsome slices. A whole neck of mutton gently boiled for 4-5
hours in salted water, with 2 carrots, 2 onions, and 3 turnips, and
served with caper is very good.
(_b_) Boiled.--Prepare, trim, and tie it back in the same way, but
entirely removing the skin, and paring off nearly all the fat; in
boiling there is no waste, on the contrary, the fat swells; ¼ in.
is therefore quite a sufficient thickness to leave. Put it into a
stewpan on the fire with just enough cold water, salted to taste,
to cover it. The instant it boils draw it to the side, and let it
gently simmer until done, when it should be as tender and delicate as
chicken. Allow ¼ hour to the lb. after simmering begins. Serve with
plain melted butter, stirring a tablespoonful of slightly chopped
capers, and a spoonful or two of milk into it, just before pouring
the sauce over the mutton.
(_c_) Braised.--Take a piece of the best end of a neck of mutton,
trim off all superfluous fat, lay the joint in a stewpan over a slice
of fat bacon; add whole pepper and salt to taste, an onion stuck
with cloves, 2 sliced carrots, and a bundle of sweet herbs; moisten
with a little stock, and let it braise gently for about 1 hour. When
done strain the gravy, free it from fat, pour it over the joint in
the dish, and serve garnished with carrots cut as for Julienne, and
cooked by being tossed in butter till done.
(_d_) Roast.--Take a piece of the best end of a neck, trim off all
superfluous fat, saw off the chine, wrap up the joint in a piece of
oiled paper. Roast it at a brisk fire, basting frequently. When it
has roasted ½ hour remove the paper, sprinkle the joint freely with
salt, and put it nearer the fire, and as soon as it has taken a good
colour it is ready. Time of roasting must necessarily vary according
to the nature of the fire, the size of the joint, and the taste of
those for whom it is cooked for eating meat overdone or underdone. No
hard and fast rule can be given for the time of roasting.
(_e_) Rolled.--Take a piece of the best end of a neck of mutton,
with a sharp knife remove the skin, taking with it as much meat as
possible from the bones except the fillet, which is to form the
cutlets; saw off the bones, divide the cutlets, trim them, and gather
all the meat from the trimmings and the bones. Lay the best pieces
on the skin with a few pieces of bacon, pound the rest in a mortar
with any other trimmings of raw or cooked meat that may be at hand,
a small piece of butter, half an onion, some sweet herbs, pepper and
salt. Pass this through a sieve, and spread it on the skin, fold up ½
inch of both the long sides, then roll up the skin tight from one of
the narrow sides, tie it up with thread several times round. Fry an
onion with a little bacon fat, put in the meat, turn it round once or
twice, and when it has taken colour moisten with a very little stock,
and let it simmer till done. Remove the string, and serve with the
sauce strained over it. With the cutlets another dish can be made in
the ordinary way.
(_f_) Scrag of Mutton à la Russe.--Take about 1½ lb. scrag of mutton
in one piece, boil it gently for about 3 hours in 1 qt. water with
1 teaspoonful salt, 2 onions, 1 turnip, 1 carrot, and a pinch of
pepper. When the meat is perfectly tender, so that the bones can
easily be taken out, brush it over well with yolk of egg, then
sprinkle over it a mixture of finely sifted breadcrumbs, raspings, a
shake of flower, a little dried and sifted parsley, and sufficient
pepper and salt to season it highly. Put the meat into the Dutch
oven, baste it until brown with 1 oz. butter, and serve with good
gravy or brown caper sauce. The broth may be served with the
vegetables minced in it, a little celery being added, and for those
who like it a small quantity of chopped parsley put into the tureen
and the broth poured boiling on it. Take care to remove all fat from
the broth; it will rise very quickly if the basin is set in a larger
one containing cold water changed frequently.
(_g_) Scrag of Mutton may be used for yet another dish, either by
simmering it gently (after flouring and seasoning it with pepper and
salt, using only rice and an onion sliced in rings, and letting it
stew in water), or it may be made into an Irish stew, for which it
will require to be cut into small pieces, floured and seasoned, and
stewed with potatoes and onions in just enough water to cover it for
about 2 hours. Half the potatoes to be sent up with it should be cut
into quarters, and should not be put in until the stew is half cooked.
Pasty.--The undercut of a shoulder is best for this purpose. With
a sharp knife cut the lean meat away from an uncooked shoulder of
mutton; let the slices be thin. This will not in the least interfere
with the upper side, which may be hung as long as required after the
undercut is removed. Lay the slices of meat in a pie-dish, sprinkle
pepper and salt over them, and nearly fill the dish with a gravy that
will jelly, made from mutton shanks and a little gravy beef, 2 nicely
fried onions, a few pepper-corns, and a very small bit of mace. If
for eating cold cover the pasty with a good puff paste, and bake in
a quick oven. If to be served hot a cover of mashed potatoes, or a
crust as for Devonshire pie, is suitable.
Patties.--Make ¼ lb. paste, roll thin, and line with it 4, 6, or
9 patty pans; the pans must be previously buttered, and the paste
cut with a crimped cutter; fill them with rice. When baked remove
the rice, fill the patties with mince made a little more moist with
gravy. Serve on a napkin, arranging them nicely on the dish. Serve
very hot. The patties can be ornamented with fried parsley, or in any
way you please.
Pudding.--Get 1½ to 2 lb. scrag of mutton, take off all the fat,
boil it gently for 2 hours, meat downwards, in 1 qt. water, with 2
onions and a good seasoning of pepper and salt. Take up the meat;
set the broth aside to cool, in order that you may take off the
fat. Carefully remove the meat from the bones. Make a crust with
the fat from the scrag of mutton or beef suet, in the proportion of
2 oz. fat to 4 oz. flour; line a pudding basin with this, slice in
2 cooked potatoes, lightly pepper and salt them, then the onions
cooked with the mutton, then the meat of the scrag, and, as a great
improvement to the pudding, a sheep’s kidney sliced, or half an ox
kidney; sprinkle pepper and salt over, and put on the top 2 more
sliced potatoes. Fill up the basin with some of the broth, put on a
lid of paste, and boil the pudding for 2 hours. Return the bones to
the remainder of the broth, with an onion; let them boil until the
pudding is ready, then serve the broth in a sauce-boat. All meat
puddings should be served in the basins in which they are boiled, a
napkin being neatly folded round. The carver should remove a round
piece from the lid of the pudding, and pour in enough of the broth
from the sauce boat to fill it up; this will ensure each person
getting the same kind of gravy. This pudding may be made of sheep’s
head after it has been boiled. To make the crust for a richer
pudding, use equal quantities of suet and flour. Mix a pinch of salt
with the flour and suet, make into a paste with cold water in the
proportion of ½ pint to 1 lb. of flour. Flour the paste board, and
roll out the crust ¼ in. thick. Dissolve a little butter, and brush
the inside of a basin thickly with it, then line with the paste.
Rissoles.--Make a short paste with 6 oz. flour, 3 oz. butter, a
pinch of salt, 1 whole egg, and 1 yolk; mix all into a paste, roll
it out to the thickness of a penny piece; place the mince at equal
distances, say 1½ in.; egg lightly, cover with paste of a similar
thickness, press the paste around each piece of mince, and cut it out
with a crimped cutter. Egg each rissole, and pass it in bread crumbs;
fry in hot lard, and serve.
Roast Quarter of Lamb.--Let the fire be clear, but not too fierce.
Cover the joint with greased paper, and baste it frequently; ½ hour
before serving remove the paper and base the joint with butter and
lemon juice, lastly sprinkle a little flour and salt over it. Time of
roasting 2-2½ hours.
Roast Saddle of Mutton.--Trim the joint carefully, roast it at
a brisk clear fire; baste frequently, and when done dredge it
plentifully with salt, and serve with the gravy well freed from fat.