To Boyle a Leg of Mutton with Lemons
To boyle a Leg of Mutton with Lemmons. When your mutton is half boyled, take it up, cut it in small peeces, put it into a Pipkin and cover it close, and put therto the best of the broth, as much as shall cover your Mutton, your Lemmons being sliced very thin and quartered and corance: put in pepper groce beaten, and so let them boile together, and when they be well boiled, seson it with a little vergious, Sugar, Pepper groce beaten, and a little sanders, so lay it in fine dishes upon sops
Recipes for boiled leg of mutton can be found many places, however you can find this recipe in A Boke of Cookrye, 1591, English
To Boil a Capon:
What I did:
- when your mutton (I used lamb, as it is what I had, however mutton, being a stronger flavoured meat, may work better) is half boiled, remove it from the pot and chop it up into small pieces.
- Put this into a pot with enough broth to cover, cover pot and set over low heat
- take lemons (I used about 6 small ones to about 1 1/2-2 pounds of meat but you may want to use less) and thinly slice them and quarter the slices. Add this to the pot. (it doesn't say to peel them or to avoid using the pith, though doing such would reduce many harsher overtones)
- add currants (I used a small handful) and cracked pepper (note on the pepper, it says to add more near the end, but the pepper/lemon combination can increase the pepper sensation so use caution if you want your diners to be able to taste anything else after dinner)
- Before serving, season with verjuice (I used very little), sugar (ended up using a 1/2 cup), more of the same pepper (see notes on it above) and saunders (which I skipped here, but basically the red colour would/should improve the appearance of the dish)
- This is served on sops
This dish has A LOT of flavour, not something many people's taste-buds are accustomed to experiencing... this isn't to say it was bad but certainly something I could only eat in moderation, extreme moderation!
Also, I opted to try and use the fruit with the peels on and found the bitterness was a bit much which is why I ended up adding so much sugar. It seems obvious, though I can not say for sure, that the lemons should be peeled (with a knife as to remove all the pith)
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