Mutton chop

“ If kidney be in it, a slice should be served as far as it will go to each portion. Care must be taken that the bone is well jointed. The butcher chops the loin between each vertebra. When big mutton is carved it gives a large chop, oftentimes more than the amount desired, but a chop cannot be divided without waste, or one portion being all the inferior end. It is therefore a good plan to joint a loin of mutton with a small meat saw, cutting any thickness desired. ”

“ Beat the mutton chops till tender; then trim, making them of uniform size and shape; pour on them boiling water. Let them remain in it a minute, dry them and rub with pepper, salt, and fresh butter. Lay on a gridiron over hot coals, always remembering to cover them while broiling. Turn them, and as soon as nicely browned place in a hot dish, pepper again, pour over them melted butter, and serve.—Mrs. S. T.
Mutton Stew.
Cut slices of rare mutton and put on to stew in a little water; when nearly done put in—
1 teacup of sweet pickle vinegar. ”

“ Eldridge and Mrs. Rogers, with the tea, and the sugar, and the bread and butter, and the fish, and the mutton-chops they will all want. Your nineteen dollars will soon be gone at that rate."
"Mutton-chops!" echoed Matilda. "Norton, they do not see anything so good as mutton-chops."
"They ought to," said Norton. "They have as much right as other folks." ”

“ The farms of some of the great Scottish landowners are of enormous extent. "How many sheep have you on your estate?" asked Prince Esterhazy of the duke of Argyll. "I have not the most remote idea," replied the duke; "but I know the shepherds number several thousands."
BROILED MUTTON CHOPS. 711. INGREDIENTS.—Loin of mutton, pepper and salt, a small piece of butter.
Mode.—Cut the chops from a well-hung tender loin of mutton, remove a portion of the fat, and trim them into a nice shape; slightly beat and level them ”

“ If the outside skin comes off easily, mutton is sure to be good. Lamb chops may be easily distinguished from mutton chops by the red color of bone. As lamb grows older, blood recedes from bones; therefore in mutton the bone is white. In leg of lamb the bone at joint is serrated, while in leg of mutton the bone at joint is smooth and rounded. Good mutton contains a larger proportion of fat than good beef. Poor mutton is often told by the relatively small proportion of fat and lean as compared to bone. ”

“ Now boiled mutton is, to the critic, a poor sort of dish, unsuggestive, boldly and flagrantly nourishing, a most British [Pg 28] thing, which “will never gain a foothold on the American stomach.” This last is a vile phrase, even for an American critic, and suggests a wrestling match. The critic goes on: “The Austenite must e’en eat it. Roast mutton is a different thing. You might know Emma Woodhouse would have roast mutton rather than boiled; it is to roast mutton and rice pudding that the little Kneightleys go scampering home through the wintry weather.” ”

“ Of black-faced mutton it makes a fine roast, and the piece of fat in it called the pope's eye, is considered a delicate morceau by epicures. A gigot of Leicester, Cheviot, or Southdown mutton makes a beautiful 'boiled leg of mutton,' which is prized the more the fatter it is, as this part of the carcass is never overloaded with fat. The loin is almost always roasted, the flap of the flank being skewered up, and it is a juicy piece. For a small family, the black-faced mutton is preferable; for a large, the Southdown and Cheviot. ”

“ Mutton is largely consumed in the country, and is killed, dressed, and cooked in a speedy and simple manner. The sheep being hung by its hind legs to a tree, its throat is cut, and the blood is received into a bowl and mixed with salt, in which state it is thought to be a very great delicacy. ”

“ The want of relish, perhaps the distaste, for mutton has served as an obstacle to the extension of sheep husbandry in the United States. The common mistake in the management of mutton among us is, that it is eaten, as a general thing, at exactly the wrong time after it is killed. ”

“ Partington—who married my father's sister, and lived many years chairman of quarter sessions at Offham, among the South Downs, near Lewes—there was a man who understood mutton! A little silver saucepan was placed by his side when the leg of mutton, or sometimes two, about as big as fine fowls, were placed in one dish before him. Then, after the mutton had been cut, the abundantly flowing gravy was transferred to the saucepan, a couple of glasses of tawny old port, and a quantum suff. ”

“ The memory of man supplies no recollection of so wet a season as from September 1824 to March 1825; it produced the rot in sheep to an alarming extent. In consequence of the animals being killed in this disease, the mutton is unwholesome for human food, and produces mortality even in dogs. The newspapers relate that such mutton given to a kennel of dogs rendered them fat, till on a sudden their good looks declined, they became lean, and gradually died, without any other cause being assignable for the mortality, than the impure flesh of the sheep. ”

“ The best quality will have clear, hard, white fat, and a good deal of it; the lean part will be juicy, firm and of a rather dark red color. When there is but little fat, and that is soft and yellow and the meat is coarse and stringy, you may be sure that the quality is poor. Mutton is much improved by being hung in a cool place for a week or more. At the North a leg will keep quite well for two or three weeks in winter, if hung in a cold, dry shed or cellar. Mutton, like beef, is first split through the back, and then the sides are divided, giving two fore and two hind quarters. ”

“ Hash of mutton is wholesome food, and it should be eaten as such without further question. If Providence had meant it to be tasty as well, He would have made His intentions as plain as in the case of roast pheasant.”
“Lottie will tell you that I made no face at the mention of hash of mutton,” said Fanny. “What does it signify whether one sits down to a simple platter of mutton hash or a great dinner such as father gets at Mr. Thrale’s? A pair of geese, a leg of mutton, a tongue, a rib of roast beef and a brace of pheasants, with two or three dishes of fish, and for Dr. ”

“ Only occasionally we find it necessary to slaughter some unmanageable rusher, a cow, or bullock, and then we have beef, fresh and salted down. Mutton was just as scarce for several years, as we could not afford to kill out of our small flock; and mutton is not good to salt down. ”

“ The mutton is of course inferior in quality, and the people led to entertain prejudices against it. Even the slaves in the south are said to object to being fed on sheep’s meat. I have again and again seen good mutton, but far more rarely than good beef and pork. ”

“ The breast of mutton is nice baked. The joints of the brisket should be separated, the sharp ends of the ribs sawed off, the outside rubbed over with a little piece of butter—salt it, and put it in a bake pan, with a pint of water. When done, take it [13] up, and thicken the gravy with a little flour and water, and put in a small piece of butter. A table spoonful of catsup, cloves and allspice, improve it, but are not essential. The neck of mutton makes a good soup. Parsely or celery-heads are a pretty garnish for mutton. ”

“ We need pickles nowadays to make Wednesday’s cold mutton please our Friday’s appetite; and I can remember the time when to call it red venison, and tell myself a hunter’s story, would have made it more palatable than the best of sauces. To the grown person, cold mutton is cold mutton all the world over; not all the mythology ever invented by man will make it better or worse to him; the broad fact, the clamant reality, of the mutton carries away before it such seductive figments. But for the child it is still possible to weave an enchantment over eatables ”

“ The two classes of long-woolled and short-woolled sheep differ in the following points:—
Age has a great deal to do with the quality of meat, as is well shown by the expression "four-year-old mutton." This is considered the age for producing the highest quality of dark-grained tender flesh, but the exigencies of modern farming have rendered it necessary to lower the age, and most mutton is now killed at from ten to sixteen months old. In parks and demesnes it is still usual to hold back the smaller wethers to grow slowly into mutton for the private table of their wealthy owners. ”

“ The grounds of this preference will be understood when I explain that English farmers who manufacture mutton as a primary product kill their sheep as soon as they are full grown, when a year old or less. They can not afford to feed a sheep for two years longer merely to improve its flavor without adding to its weight. Country gentlemen who do not care for expense occasionally regale their friends on a haunch or saddle of three-year-old mutton, as a rare and costly luxury. ”

“ The domestic Anglo-Saxon is a mutton-eater. Let his offshoots here and elsewhere follow suit. There is no such timber to repair the waste of the human frame. It is a fuel easily combustible in the visceral grate of the stomach. The mutton-eater is eupeptic. His dreams are airy and lightsome. Somnus descends smiling to his nocturnal pillow, and not clad in the portentous panoply of indigestion, which rivals a guilty conscience in its night visions. The mutton department of Quincy Market is all that it should be. ”

“ Some cuts which seem inexpensive really cost more than they appear to because they contain large amounts of bone or waste fat. The difference between lamb and mutton is a question of the age at which the animal was slaughtered. Lamb is much more tender than mutton, is more delicately flavored and more expensive. ”

“ These Americans hold mutton in the utmost contempt, and I have heard them say, people who eat it belong to the family of wolves. And many of them, who in the summer are sometimes short of meat, when their bacon is exhausted, would live on corn-bread for a month, rather than eat an ounce of mutton, veal, rabbit, goose, or duck. ”

“ The cross-bred sheep is raised primarily to meet the enormous and rapidly growing demand for mutton. The price realized from the sale of mutton is sufficient not only to cover the entire expense of raising the sheep, but leaves the farmer a net profit, before he has sold a pound of his wool, which has become a by-product with him, and the proceeds from which represent a clear gain. It will be easily seen that the up-to-date mutton-sheep breeder can do very well without any duty on wool. ”

“ To roast a leg of mutton, first remove the pink outer skin, as this contains the strong flavor. Never roast with the caul left on. The bone from the leg may be removed and the cavity stuffed and edges sewed; or the leg may be roasted without removing bone. In either case wipe meat, dredge with flour, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place on rack in dripping pan. Dredge pan with flour, and if the mutton flavor is desired, place pieces of mutton fat in the pan, or salt pork may be substituted. ”

“ But I have heard a few of them say they like mutton; but even if fond of it, they will never purchase it, for fear of the scoffs of their neighbours. I do not intend to keep any sheep till I am better prepared for them. Wool sells, on a small scale, for half a dollar a lb., without much regard to its fineness, which is the reason why sheep are higher than mutton, as a sheep of fifty lbs. weight will fetch from two dollars fifty cents to three dollars; whereas, at five cents per lb., the very top price for mutton, the same sheep would only fetch two dollars fifty cents. ”

“ Short wool and fine mutton generally go together, and in most of the best mutton races the face and shanks are coloured black, brown or grey. The Down breeds have all roamed over sweet and scant herbage for centuries, and have acquired a muscular development and fineness of fibre common to them all. The long-woolled races above described have developed heavier fleeces, larger frames, and coarser flesh by grazing on rich lowlands, and by artificial feeding in winter. They lay their fat on externally on their backs and loins, and never handle so firmly as Down or Forest-bred sheep. ”

“ Thought is the Most Swift of All.
1046. Mutton (Venison fashion)
Take a neck of good four or five-year-old Southdown wether mutton, cut long in the bones; let it hang in mild weather, at least a week. Two days before you dress it, take allspice and black pepper, ground and pounded fine, a quarter of an ounce each, rub them together and then rub your mutton well with this mixture twice a day. When you dress it, wash off the spice with warm water, and roast it in paste.
1047. Veal
Veal requires particular care to roast it a nice brown. ”

“ The following passage from David Copperfield is an account of how an underdone leg of mutton was made palatable after it had come to the table. No subject could be simpler, and yet it is treated in so lively a way that it is very entertaining.
There was a gridiron in the pantry, on which my morning rasher of bacon was cooked. We had it in, in a twinkling, and immediately applied ourselves to carrying Mr. Micawber's idea into effect. The division of labor to which he had referred was this: Traddles cut the mutton into slices; Mr. ”