A guide to modern cookery

purées of turnips, celery, etc., and these vegetables should cook with the meat. A purée of potatoes or of haricot beans may be sent to the table with the meat; but, in this case, of course, the vegetables would be served separately. 1306—BRAISED LEG OF MUTTON Suppress the pelvic bone, shorten the end bone and brown the leg in the oven. Now, put it in an oval utensil, garnished for braising; add just enough white stock to barely cover the joint, and cook gently, allowing forty minutes per lb. of meat. Transfer the leg to a tray; strain the braising-liquor; clear it of all grease, and reduce it to half. Sprinkle the meat with a few tablespoonfuls of this reduced gravy, and set it to glaze in the oven. 4 Serve at the same time :— (1) Either a purée of potatoes, of turnips, of haricot-beans, of cauliflower,*etc., or (2) The reduced braising-liquor. 1307—GIGOT A LA BOULANGERE The leg may either be boned, seasoned inside and strung; or the end-bone may simply be shortened and that of the pelvis removed. In either case, put it in an earthenware dish, and brown it well in the oven, on both sides; then complete its cooking, all but a third. This done, set round the joint four large, sliced onions, just tossed in butter, that they may acquire some colour, and eight large, peeled potatoes cut into roundels one half in. thick. Sprinkle this garnish with the grease of the joint, and then complete the cooking of the leg and its garnish. Serve in the dish in which the joint has cooked. 1308—GIGOT MARINE EN CHEVREUIL Shorten the end-bone; remove the bone of the pelvis, and skin the top of the leg, leaving the meat in that region quite bare. Lard with very small strips of bacon, and put the meat into a marinade prepared after the manner described under No. 170. The length of its stay in the marinade should be based upon the tenderness of the meat and atmospheric conditions. In winter the time averages about three or four days, and in summer two days. To Roast the Joint—Withdraw it from the marinade and dry it thoroughly; set it on a stand in the baking-tray ; and put it into a very fierce oven, that the meat may set immediately. The object of the very fierce oven is to prevent the juices absorbed from the marinade escaping in steam and thereby hardening the meat. Towards the close of the operation, rissole the larding bacon well. Set on a long dish; fix a frill to the bone, and serve a Chevreuil sauce separately. Chevreuil Sauce a la Frangaise.—With the marinade of the joint and a Mirepoix with ham, prepare a sufficient quantity of Poivrade sauce (No. 49) to obtain two-thirds of a pint of it after it has been strained through a colander—an operation which should be effected with the application of great pressure to the aromatics. Despumate this sauce for thirty minutes, and add, little by little, half a wine-glassful of excellent red wine. Finish the seasoning with a little cayenne and a pinch of powdered sugar, and once more rub the whole through tammy or a fine strainer. 1309—GIGOT A LA SOUBISE Braise the leg of mutton as shown under No. 247. When it is two-thirds done, transfer it to another utensil; strain the braising-liquor over it, and add thereto three lbs. of sliced onions and two-third Ib. of rice. Gently complete the cooking of the joint, together with the onions and the rice. This done:—(1) put it on a baking-tray and glaze it in the oven; (2) quickly rub the onions and the rice through a fine sieve or tammy. Set the leg of mutton on a long dish; put a frill on the bone, and serve, separately, the well-heated Soubise, finished with one oz. of butter. N.B.—This Soubise may be prepared separately ; but in this case it has much less flavour than when it is made from the onions and the rice which have cooked in the braising-liquor. I therefore urge the adoption of the recipe as it stands.