Original White House Cookbook

To PREPARE a leg of mutton for boiling, wash it clean, cut a small piece off the shank bone, and trim the knuckle. Put it into a pot with water enough to cover it, and boil gently from two to three hours, skimming well. Then take it from the fire, and keeping the pot well covered, let it finish by remaining in the steam for ten or fifteen minutes. Serve it up with a sauce boat of melted butter, into which a teacupful of capers or nasturtiums have been stirred. If. the broth is to be used for soup, put in a little salt while boiling; if not, salt it well when partly done, and boil the meat in a cloth. BRAISED LEG OF MUTTON. This recipe can be varied either by preparing the leg with a stuffing, placed in the cavity after having the bone removed, or cooking it without. Having lined the bottom of a thick iron kettle or stewpan with a few thin slices of bacon, put over the bacon four carrots, three onions, a bunch of savory herbs; then over these place the leg of mutton. Cover the whole with a few more slices of bacon, then pour over half of a pint of water. Cover with a tight cover and stew very gently for four hours, basting the leg occasionally with its own liquor, and seasoning it with salt and pepper as soon as it begins to be tender. When cooked strain the gravy, thicken with a spoonful of flour (it should be quite brown), pour some of it over the meat and send the remainder to the table in a tureen, to be served with the mutton when carved. Garnish the dish around the leg with potatoes cut in the shape of olives and fried a light brown in butter. LEG 'OF MUTTON A LA VENISON. Remove all the rough fat from the mutton and lay it in a deep earthen dish; rub into it thoroughly the following; One tablespoonful of salt, one each of celery-salt, brown sugar, black pepper, English mustard, allspice, and some sweet herbs, all powdered and mixed; after which pour over it slowly a teacup of good vinegar, cover tightly, and set in a cool place four or five days, turning it and basting often with the liquid each day. To cook, put in a kettle a quart of boiling water, place over it an inverted shallow pan, and on it lay the meat just as removed from the pickle; cover the kettle tightly and stew four hours. Do not let the water touch the meat. Add a cup of hot water to the pickle remaining and baste with it. When done, thicken the liquid with flour and strain through a flne sieve, to serve with the meat; also a relish of currant jelly, the same as for venison. This is a fine dish when the directions are faithfully followed. STEAMED LEG OF MUTTON. Wash and put the leg in a steamer and cook it until tender, then place in a roasting pan, salt and dredge well with flour and set in a hot oven until nicely browned; the water that remains in the bottom of the steamer may be used for soup. Serve with currant jelly. HASHED MUTTON.