For entrées the small South Down mutton is much to be preferred, the
principal entrées made from mutton are cotelettes, which never will be
out of vogue; I shall therefore give a numerous list of receipts for the
dressing of them, but the manner of cutting them requires particular
attention; the most simple method is to take the chine-bone off from the
neck neatly with a saw, but not quite detaching all the meat from the
bone, then cut it into chops, leaving a bone to each; with a knife cut
off the skinny part from each side of the bone and a piece of the meat
at the end of the bone, so as to leave a piece of bone about half an
inch in length, then with a cotelette-bat beat them nearly to the same
thickness as the bone, take the rough parts of the bone off with your
chopper, and trim the cotelettes of a good shape, taking off a greater
part of the fat and rounding the lean part nicely; but in cutting
cotelettes to look well, much depends upon the taste of the person, they
require to be cut some time previous to cooking, or they would shrink
and loose their shape.