As beef requires a large sound fire, mutton must have a brisk and fierce one: it is never well done unless the fire is quick and clear, and the mutton has been hung as long as it will keep *.

A Leg

A leg of eight pounds will take two hours and a quarter: let it be well basted and frothed, in the same manner as roast beef.

* Dean Swift's Receipt to Roast Mutton.

"Gently stir and blow the fire, Lay the mutton down to roast,

Dress it quickly I desire, In the dripping put a toast,

That I hunger may remove, -

Mutton is the meat I love.

"On the dresser see it lie; Oh! the charming white and red!

Finer meat ne'er met the eye, On the sweetest grass it fed:

Let the jack go swiftly round,

Let me have it nicely brown'd.

"On the table spread the cloth, Let the knives be sharp and clean,

Pickles get and salad both, Let them each be fresh and green.

With small beer, good ale, and wine,

O ye gods! how I shall dine?"

A Chine (I. C. The Two Loins) Or A Saddle

(i.e. the two necks,) often or eleven pounds, two hours and a half: tie a sheet of paper over them: baste the strings you tie it on with directly, or they will burn; and let the meat be well basted.

A Shoulder

Of seven pounds, an hour and a half: put the spit in close to the shank bone, and run it along the blade bone; take care to froth it nicely.

A Loin

Of mutton an hour and a half. The most elegant way of carving this, is to cut it lengthwise, as you do a saddle.

A Neck

An hour and a half. It must be carefully jointed, or it is very bad to carve.

* Common cooks very seldom brown the ends of neck and loins: to have this done nicely, and in perfection, let the fire be a few inches longer at each end than the joint that is roasting, and occasionally place the spit slanting, so that each end may get sufficient fire: but nothing does this in such perfection as the concave reflectors before mentioned. This is much better than taking up the meat and putting it down before the fire to do the ends; as, by the latter method, you cannot send it to table frothed.

Observations

If there is more fat upon them than you think will be eaten with the lean, cut it off, and it will make an excellent suet pudding.

A Breast

An Hour And A Quarter.

A Haunch

(i e. the leg and part of the loin) of mutton is spitted and managed in the same way as a haunch of Venison; (see Receipt, No. 63.) send up two sauce boats with it; one of the richest drawn gravy that can be made without spice or herbs; and the other of sweet sauce.

Mutton, Venison Fashion

Take a neck of good five or six year old down mutton cut long in the bones; let it hang at least a week: two days before you dress it, take allspice and black pepper ground and pounded fine, an ounce each, with a quarter of an ounce of saltpetre, and a large spoonful of brown sugar; rub them all well 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, as we have ordered the haunch of venison: a haunch of mutton will take double the quantity of the preparation, and one day longer preparing.

Observations

Ingenious epicures have invented many methods to make mutton eat like venison: the above is the best imitation we have met with: and if you get prime mutton, keep it a proper time, and prepare and dress it as above directed, you may depend upon having a most delicious dinner: if it does not possess all the precise flavour of venison, it is certainly the most savoury and elegant way of eating mutton, which, by this process, approximates nearer to the taste of venison than by any other way we have tried, and is not attended with any extraordinary trouble or expense.