Neck Of Mutton Cutlets

This excellent dish will serve either as an entree or a supper dish. It will be less expensive if the whole neck is purchased, and the scrag end served boiled or stewed. The best end will give seven cutlets, four with bones and three without them. Let the butcher saw off the chine bone, then the cutlets can easily be divided at home. Trim them neatly, removing any gristle and almost all the fat. Trim away the fat from the long bone, leaving it bare for nearly two inches. When the cutlets are ready, melt a piece of butter the size of a hazel nut in a stew-pan, put in a layer of sliced turnips, onions, and celery, lay the cutlets on this, lightly sprinkle pepper and salt over, and cover them with another layer of the above vegetables. Cover the stewpan closely, and place it on the range at a low heat, in order that the cutlets may stew gently in their own juice and that of the vegetables. If the meat is fine this part of the cooking will be effected in about half an hour, but if on trying the cutlets are not perfectly tender, they must stew longer. When done lay them on a board and flatten them with a wooden bat or spoon, then dip them in the yolk of an egg and in breadcrumbs. Fry in a little butter first on one side, then on the other, until lightly browned.

Have ready a puree of potatoes, made by rubbing a pound of boiled potatoes with a little of the vegetables stewed with the cutlets through a sieve. Put the puree into a stewpan with a gill of milk or cream, and pepper and salt to taste, and work over the fire until it is stiff. Pile it up in the centre of a small dish, place the cutlets round it, and having taken the fat off the gravy, re-warm, pour it round the dish, and serve immediately.

Chops

By far the best way of cooking chops and steaks is to broil them, and this may be done either over the fire or before it in a hanging gridiron; but no broiling is so perfect as that done by Leoni's gas ring with terra cotta reflector.

In the first place, lightly salt and pepper the meat on the side which is placed uppermost on the gridiron, then let it cook very quickly for about a minute, in order to harden the outside and prevent the escape of the juices before the meat is done. As soon as one side is done, turn over the other, pepper and salt it, and let this also brown, then turn again, moderate the heat, and let the chop cook from eight to ten minutes, according to thickness, turning it every minute. Chops are best served without condiment of any kind, but some persons like a small piece of butter passed over each of them after they are laid in the dish, pepper and salt being afterwards added.

Mutton Cutlets

It is often convenient to dress the loin chops as a breakfast dish for one or two persons as follows : - Trim away the fat, cut the meat neatly from the bones, and divide each chop into two. Egg and bread-crumb them and fry in a little butter.

Take the bones with an onion and make them into gravy. Thicken this either with a cooked potato rubbed through a sieve, a little tomato sauce, or flour, or serve plain.

Hashed Mutton

First take the meat from the bone of a leg of mutton in as large and neat slices as the state of the joint will admit. Break the bone by striking it sharply in the middle with a knife, put it in a saucepan with a little fat, and fry until it becomes brown; take it out, and in the fat fry two sliced onions until they also are a golden brown; if allowed to burn they will make the gravy bitter. Put the fried bones and onions into the saucepan with a peeled turnip, four whole onions, and a quart of water. When the gravy has boiled for an hour and a half take out the bones, carefully remove every particle of fat from it; when cool, put it back into the stewpan with the onions and meat, and pepper and salt to taste. Let the meat get hot very slowly in the gravy, and allow it to simmer for an hour, by which time it should be perfectly tender without being ragged. Take off any fat there may be on the gravy, which thicken with a little flour mixed smooth in cold water. The gravy should now be sufficiently tasty, but any flavouring may be added. Mushroom catsup, Worcester or Harvey Sauce, or a few drops of vinegar from pickles may be used. Toasted or fried bread should be placed round the dish on which the hash is served. Many people make hash by merely allowing the meat to get hot in the gravy, and by this method it is usually hard and tasteless, whilst the onions, if any are used, are insufficiently cooked, and, consequently, are indigestible. It is impossible that the sinewy portion of the leg or shoulder can be tender, unless simmered for some length of time.

Mutton Saute

Put a little butter or bacon fat in the frying-pan, sprinkle pepper and salt over slices of cold mutton, and let them get hot very slowly. The mutton must be frequently turned, and never allowed to fry. When turned in the pan for the last time sprinkle a little chopped parsley on the upper side; remove the slices carefully on to a hot dish, pour the fat in the pan over, and serve.

Cold Mutton Potted

Cut up the meat, being careful to free it from all sinew and skin, chop or pound it with half its weight of cooked bacon until it is as fine as desired. Season with a little pepper, salt, and allspice, and proceed as directed for beef.

Any kind of cold meat, veal and ham especially, is good potted, and in all cases the method is the same. Cod fish potted may be made almost equal to salmon by the addition of essence of anchovy, and a due admixture of salt and cayenne pepper.