In carving a fore-quarter of lamb it is usual to take off the shoulder from the ribs, put in a slice of fresh butter, sprinkle it with a little cayenne, and squeeze over the divided parts a fresh lemon cut in half; and put, for that purpose, on a small plate beside the carver.
The vegetables to be eaten with lamb are, new potatos, asparagus, green peas, and spinach. Mint sauce is indispensable. French cooks seldom understand how to make it. To do it properly, take a large bunch of fresh green mint, wash it, and when you have shaken the wet from them, mince the leaves very fine, omitting the stems. Put the leaves, when chopped, into a small tureen or sauce-boat, and pour on a sufficient quantity of the best cider vinegar to moisten the mint thoroughly, but not to render it the least liquid or thin. It should be as thick as horse-radish, prepared to eat with roast beef. Mix in sufficient sugar to make it very sweet. Good brown sugar will do. At table put a tea-spoonful on the side of your plate. Those who make mint sauce thin and weak, and pour it over the meat like gravy, know nothing about it.
LAMB STEAKS.—
Cut some nice cutlets or steaks (without any bone) from a hind-quarter of lamb. Lay them in a stew pan, and season them with a little salt and cayenne, adding some butter rolled in flour. Wash carefully two fine fresh lettuces. Remove the outside leaves, quarter the lettuces, and cut off all the stalks. Set the stew-pan, with the meat, over a clear fire; and let it stew slowly till about half done. Then put in the lettuce, covering the meat with it, and let them all stew about half an hour longer. When done, take out the lettuces first. Put them into a sieve or cullender, press out the water, and chop them large. See if the meat is done all through. If it is, return the stewed lettuce to the pot, season it with a little cayenne and some salad oil, and add to it two or three hard-boiled eggs, chopped large. Cover it, and let it stew five minutes longer. Serve it up on the same dish.
LAMB CUTLETS.—
Cut the cutlets from the loin and trim them nicely, removing the skin, and most of the fat. Scrape the bone, and cut it short. Grate plenty of stale bread, and mix it with some minced sweet marjoram, seasoned with salt and pepper. Have ready a small deep dish of light beaten egg, flavored with grated nutmeg and fresh lemon-peel, grated fine, the thin yellow rind only. Put some nice lard or beef-dripping into a hot frying-pan, and when the lard boils is the time to put in the cutlets. Dip every cutlet separately into the beaten egg. Then into the bread-crumbs, &c. Repeat this a second time both with the egg and bread. The cutlets will be found much better for the double immersion. Then lay them separately in the boiling lard, and fry them well. One cutlet must not be laid on the top of another. When done, dish them and send them to table very hot, with some currant jelly to mix with the gravy. This is a fine breakfast dish or for a small dinner.
Instead of frying, you may broil them. Dip each cutlet twice into the egg and twice into the crumbs, and cover each with clean writing paper, cut of a convenient shape, and secured with pins or packthread, the paper being twisted round the end of the bone. Broil them in the papers, which must be taken off before the cutlets go to table.