Have the leg cut into steaks at the market, or by the butcher. If this has not been done, you can do it yourself with a sharp knife. Cut through the largest part first; have the slices about the thickness of your finger; separate them from the bone neatly. Broil exactly like beef steak. The bone and fragments which are left will make a good broth.
Roast Lamb.
If it is a hind quarter, and very fat, take off the thickest from the kidneys; place it on the spit, or in the dripping-pan as it should lie on the dish, slightly drawn up. Do exactly as in roasting beef. An hour and a half will suffice to roast a quarter weighing five or six pounds.
The breast of lamb is very sweet and requires about as much roasting as the hind quarter.
Stewed or Alamode Lamb.
Pick off all the fat from a nice leg of lamb, or small leg of mutton. Cut off the shank, make deep incisions in various parts of the inside; fill them with stuffing made of crumbs of bread, salt pork, sweet marjoram, and pepper; stuff it very full. Fry two or three slices of pork crisp in the pot, then take them out, and lay in the leg; brown it on every side, then put hardly water enough into the pot to cover it. Throw in a dozen or two of cloves, half an onion sliced or chopped very fine, and a little salt. A half a teacup of catsup or a few tomatoes added half an hour before it is served, improve it very much. Let it simmer, steadily, three hours.
When you take up the leg, thicken the gravy, if it is not thick enough. Put a few spoonfuls over the meat, and the rest in a gravy tureen.
To Roast a Fillet of Veal.
Veal requires more time than any other meat except pork. It is scarcely ever done too much. A leg weighing eight or nine pounds should roast three hours. If your family is large, so that most of it will be eaten the first day, it is best to take out the bone, which is easily done with a sharp knife, the knuckle having been cut off by the butcher. Put this bone aside with the knuckle for a broth. If you design to use what is left cold for dinner the next day, let the bone remain in, as it keeps the leg in better shape. Prepare a stuffing of bread, pepper, salt pork, and sweet marjoram; make deep incisions in the meat and fill them with it. Fasten the fold of fat which is usually upon the fillet over the stuffed incisions with a skewer. Roast it slowly at first. Put into the dripping-pan some hot water with a little salt in it, or some of the stock. When the meat has roasted about an hour, flour it thickly, and skewer upon it four or five slices of salt pork. After the flour has become brown, baste the veal every fifteen minutes. If it is very good veal, the pork will flavor it without the addition of any butter; but if not, or if you wish it to be particularly nice, add a small piece of butter to the gravy in the roaster, before you begin to baste the meat. In cutting the incisions, endeavor to make them wider inside than at the surface, so that the stuffing may not fall out. See the directions (page [123]) for making the gravy.