Mutton

“ 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. ”

“ The legs of this mutton range from 7 to 11 lbs. in weight; the shoulders, necks, or loins, about 6 to 9 lbs.; and if care is taken not to purchase it; the shoulders, necks, or loins, about 8 to 9 lbs.; and it cure is taken not to purchase it too fat, it will be found the most satisfactory and economical mutton that can be bought.
BRAISED LEG OF MUTTON. 708. INGREDIENTS.—1 small leg of mutton, 4 carrots, 3 onions, 1 faggot of savoury herbs, a bunch of parsley, seasoning to taste of pepper and salt, a few slices of bacon, a few veal trimmings, 1/2 pint of gravy or water. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ This last is of excellent quality, and the perceptible difference of taste that it possesses to English mutton has led, perhaps, to the colonial opinion (in which I do not coincide) that the flavour is much superior to that of mutton at home. The dried-up appearance of the sheep-runs, in summer, causes a new-comer to wonder what the sheep can find to eat upon them, until his eye ceases to regard the colour of green as an indispensable accompaniment to the existence of grass. ”

“ A gentleman living in Meadow Lane, in Leeds, bought a leg of mutton at the shambles, and requested that it might be sent home immediately. Mary, ever on the watch for her prey, hastened to the bridge over which the butcher's boy had to pass, and when she saw him approach, made towards him in a great hurry, pretending she was the gentleman's servant, scolded the boy for being so long upon the road, and taking the mutton by the shank, gave him a slap on the back, telling him she would carry it home herself. ”

“ GOING BACK TO OUR MUTTONS "There was an old man of Tobago,
Who lived on rice, gruel, and sago,
Till, much to his bliss,
His physician said this:
To a leg, sir, of mutton, you may go.
He set a monkey to baste the mutton,
And ten pounds of butter he put on."
Chain up a child, and away he will go" ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There was still a small shoulder of mutton in the house, and Sir Henry, none too pleased I thought, consented to make shift with that, and now, now," continued the unfortunate woman wringing her hands afresh, "Mary has just told me that the mutton has disappeared and a strange dog has been seen making out of the yard with something in its mouth.”
"Oh, that's vastly awkward," said Will, hitting his boot with his riding-whip as though he might thereby drive an inspiration upwards. "Sir Henry has the reputation of an epicure, one hears." ”

“ As mutton sheep they are constitutionally and anatomically deficient, being of late maturity and great longevity, (a recommendation as fine wooled sheep,) having too flat sides, too narrow chests, too little meat in the best parts, and too great a percentage of offal when slaughtered. Their mutton, however, is of fair quality when mature and well fatted. As nurses they are inferior to many other breeds. Many careful, extensive and protracted attempts have been made to produce a breed combining the fleece of the Merino with the carcass of the Leicester or other long wooled sheep. ”

“ 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 Southlanders had never heard the word mutton; but, when it was explained to them that it meant the flesh of the sheep, they replied, “That they kept their sheep very 35carefully for their wool, and that there were no wild sheep in the country: but when it was explained to them that we kept both sheep and oxen chiefly for the purpose of feeding on their flesh, they were both astonished and disgusted that we should have retained such a barbarian custom (for they regard themselves as many degrees more civilized than their European ancestors) as that of killing and eating domestic animals.” ”

“ Clements's brigade arrived to-day from somewhere, and is just visible, camped a few miles away. The biscuit ration was raised from three to four and a half to-day. Five is the full number. Rations are good now. Cooked mutton is served out at night, and also a portion of raw mutton. Drawing rations is an amusing scene. It is always done in the dark, and the corporal stands at the pot doling out chunks. It is a thrilling moment when you investigate by touch the nature of the greasy, sodden lump put into your hand; it may be all bone, with frills of gristle on it, or it may be good meat. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nobody knows anything about mutton in these days, for the very sufficient reason that there is no mutton worth knowing anything about. Scientific breeding has improved it off the face of the earth. The immature meat is killed at two years old, and only we few survivors of a former generation know how little like it is to the mutton of former days. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One can easily imagine him in spring and summer fossicking in the cushiony vegetation of the sub-alpine meadows for insect larvae, or flying in and out of the bush in search of honey and fruits; while in autumn and winter he would be searching for insects among the crevices of the rocks or eating the berries of the forest. Now that he has taken to sheep-killing much of his spare time is used in worrying the sheep, and in winter the mutton must make a welcome addition to his scanty larder. ”

“ The cry for five-year-old mutton is thus based on very untenable grounds; the truth being that well-fed and fatted mutton is never better than when it gets its full growth in its second year; and the farmer cannot afford to keep it longer, unless the wool would pay for the keep, since we have not the epicures and men of wealth who would pay the butcher the extra price, which he must have, to enable him to pay a remunerating price to the grazier for keeping his sheep two or three years over. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Such treatment of sheep cannot, however, be justified on the principles of modern practice; because both reason and taste concur in mutton being at its best whenever sheep attain their perfect state of growth and condition, not their largest and heaviest; and as one breed attains its perfect state at an earlier [190] age than another, its mutton attains its best before another breed attains what is its best state, although its sheep may be older; but taste alone prefers one kind of mutton to another, even when both are in their best state, from some peculiar property. ”

“ Sex too is important. Wether mutton, or the flesh of the castrated male, is in the highest repute, although scarcely superior to young female mutton. Rams are always coarse in flesh and of inferior value after six months old, and acquire a strong flavour. Ewe mutton is also inferior, not on account of its age, which is generally only three or four years, but because bearing and suckling lambs dries the flesh and renders it less juicy and palatable. ”

“ The quality and flavor of our mutton is improving to that extent that a long time cannot possibly elapse before the prejudice now existing in favor of the English article must give way to the honest acknowledgment that the American mutton, if not superior to, stands at least fully on a par with, the English rival. ”

“ If, however, the meat be tender, the gravy well made and abundant, and the sippets nicely toasted, the whole being neatly served, hashed mutton is not a despicable dish, and is much more wholesome and more appetising than the traditional cold shoulder, of which fathers and husbands and their bachelor friends stand in not unnatural awe. ”

“ Price’s cottage, and walked in to find the kitchen full of a delightful aroma, and a fine leg of mutton just being taken from the roasting-jack by Esmeralda and placed on the table, which was already adorned with a saucer containing pickled walnuts.
[99]
Miss Bretherton knew better than to say, “That’s my leg of mutton.” Our village understands all about “having the law on ’un,” if anyone upsets their feelings in any way. Therefore, swallowing hard, and determining for the hundredth time not to lose her temper, she said, “Where did you get that leg of mutton from, Mrs. Price?” ”

“ Just as the mallee farmer is dependent on his annual wheat harvest, so the remarkable colony of people living on Cape Barren Island is entirely dependent on the annual Mutton-Bird harvest. They claim to take about a million and a half birds each year. The number is probably much exaggerated, for Littler, in his valuable Birds of Tasmania, gives the number as 555,000 for 1909, valued at about £4000. Bass and Flinders were glad to replenish their stores with young Mutton-Birds. Flinders calculated that one flock of these birds he met in Bass Strait contained 132,000,000 birds. ”

“ If it be ram mutton, the flavour of [112] which is disagreeable and strong, the grain will be close, the lean tough and of a deep red colour; it will not rise when pinched, and the fat will be spongy. The test of excellence in this meat is that it does not fly from the knife when cut, but rather closes upon it. Carefully observe the vein in the neck of mutton or lamb; if it look ruddy or bluish, the meat is fresh, but if yellowish, is decaying, and if green, completely tainted. The hind-quarter may be judged of from the kidney and knuckle. ”