Mutton A La Venison

Wash a saddle of mutton inside and out with cider vinegar. Do not wipe it, but hang up to dry in a cold, dry place - not in the cellar if it can possibly be avoided, as the moisture of a cellar is disastrous to meat.

When the vinegar has dried on the meat, throw a clean cloth about it to keep off any possible dust. Sponge in this way every other day for two weeks. When ready to cook, wipe the meat with a cloth, but do not wash it. Roast the mutton, basting for the first hour with butter and water, and afterward with the gravy in the pan. Add to the gravy just before serving half a tea-cupful of walnut, mushroom or tomato catsup, and a glass of Madeira, making the gravy the same as directed in the preceding recipe. Mutton prepared in this way strongly resembles venison.

Stuffed And Rolled Shoulder Of Mutton

Have the butcher remove the bones from a shoulder piece. Wipe the meat carefully, and dredge with flour, after sprinkling with salt and pepper. Make the following stuffing.

One pint of bread-crumbs. One table-spoonful of butter. One-half tea-spoonful of pepper. One-half an onion. One tea-spoonful of dried herbs. One tea-spoonful of salt.

Rub the butter and crumbs well together, and let them stand at least an hour. Chop the onion fine, pour boiling water over it, and drain off almost immediately. This removes the rank taste of the onion. Add the chopped onion to the crumbs, and also the salt and pepper, and the herbs, if there are any. Spread the meat with this dressing, roll it up, and skewer it together, or else tie it around with clean twine if there are no skewers. Put half a pint of water in the bottom of the baking pan, and, placing the meat on a rack (see "Kitchen Utensils"), roast the same as directed for a baked leg of mutton, basting frequently. Allow about twenty minutes to a pound in baking with a stuffing.

Mutton Stew

Three pounds of shoulder of mutton.

One-half pound of salt pork.

One large onion.

One cupful of milk.

Two table-spoonfuls of flour.

Salt and pepper.

The inferior parts of the sheep will do well for this dish, which makes an economical dinner. Trim the mutton of every particle of fat, and cut it into pieces half the size of a tea-cup; nearly cover with hot water, place it on the fire and let it simmer slowly, closely covered, for half an hour. Then add the pork and onion, season to taste with salt and pepper, and stew slowly until the meat is tender. Lift the meat out with a skimmer, and place it on the serving dish; and add the milk to the gravy in the kettle. When the gravy is hot, add the flour stirred to a paste with a little cold milk. When these are well cooked together, taste the gravy, and add more seasoning if necessary ; then pour it over the mutton, and serve. If green corn is in season, add the grains from six ears an hour before the stew is done.

Scalloped Mutton

One pint of cold, chopped meat. One-quarter tea-spoonful of pepper. One tea-spoonful of salt. One table-spoonful of butter. One tea-spoonful of flour. One cupful of water.

Chop the meat rather coarsely, and add the salt and pepper. Heat the butter, and stir in the flour ; when browned darkly, add the water, and season the gravy thus made with salt and pepper. Arrange alternate layers of meat and gravy in a baking dish, using three layers of gravy and two of the mutton, thus ending with gravy. Cover the top with a light sprinkling of bread-crumbs, and bake twenty minutes in a hot oven. This dish may be prepared the day before, if needed for break-fast, and set in a cold place.