Fresh Tongue
- 1 tongue
- 1 onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
- 8 cloves
- Salt
Wash the tongue, put it into as small a cooker-pail as will easily hold it, add the other ingredients and fill the pail with boiling water, using one teaspoonful of salt to each quart of water. Let it boil for twenty minutes or half an hour, depending upon the size of the tongue. Put it into a cooker for ten hours or more. If not perfectly tender, reheat it to boiling point and cook it for from two to four hours longer in the hay-box. Plunge it into cold water and remove the skin. Serve it hot with [caper sauce], using the liquor in which the tongue was boiled in place of water, to make the sauce.
XIII
LAMB AND MUTTON
Spring lamb is the meat of lambs from six weeks to three months old. It is obtainable in March and throughout the spring. Yearling is lamb one year old. The flesh of lamb is lighter in colour than that of mutton and the bones are pinker. It may be distinguished from mutton, also, by the smaller size of the cuts, which are otherwise the same in mutton and lamb. Mutton, as all dark meats, may be served rare; but lamb, being lighter, is classed with white meats in this respect, and should be thoroughly cooked. The rank flavour of mutton is greatly reduced if the pink membrane, which surrounds the animal, is pulled off before cooking. The fat of mutton has a strong, disagreeable flavour, and most of it should be removed. It will not be good for any cooking purposes as veal, beef, and pork fat are.
Cuts of Mutton. The favourite cuts are the rib and loin chops and the leg, but as other parts of the sheep are much cheaper, it is well to know their possibilities. Shoulder, boned and tied into shape, will, when cooked in the hay-box or cooker, make a very good substitute for the leg, while shoulder of lamb makes a good roast for small families who grow tired of perpetual steak and chops.
Figure No. 8.
Diagram of the cuts of mutton and lamb.
TABLE SHOWING THE WAYS IN WHICH THE VARIOUS CUTS OF MUTTON AND LAMB MAY BE COOKED IN THE HAY-BOX OR COOKER
- 1. Neck, stews and broth.
- 2. Chuck, stews, broth, meat pie, casserole of rice and meat, hash.
- 3. Shoulder, braising, plain or boned and stuffed, casserole of rice and meat, hash.
- 4 and 5. Loin chops, cooked as veal cutlets, breaded or plain.
- 6. Flank, soups, stews.
- 7. Leg, braised or boiled.
OTHER PARTS OF THE ANIMAL, USED FOR FOOD, WHICH MAY BE COOKED IN THE HAY-BOX OR COOKER
- Heart, braised, plain or stuffed.
- Liver, braised, or breaded as veal cutlets.
- Tongue, boiled.
- Kidneys, stewed.
In the chapter on the [Insulated Oven] directions are also given for roasting some cuts of mutton and lamb. They are not included in this list, since the oven is not an accompaniment of every cooker.