Modern cookery for private families

to them.[78] The scrag, or that part of it which joins the head, is seldom used for any other purpose than making broth, and should be taken off before the joint is dressed. Cutlets from the thick end of the loin are commonly preferred to any others, but they are frequently taken likewise from the best end of the neck (sometimes called the _back-ribs_) and from the middle of the leg. Mutton kidneys are dressed in various ways, and are excellent in many. The trotters and the head of a sheep may be converted into very good dishes, but they are scarcely worth the trouble which is required to render them palatable. The loin and the leg are occasionally cured and smoked like hams or bacon. Footnote 78: Many years since, these “_saddle-back_” cutlets were supplied to us by a country butcher, and though of very fine South Down mutton, had no particular importance attached to them, nor were they considered as remarkably new. TO ROAST A HAUNCH OF MUTTON.[79] Footnote 79: We recommend Liebig’s directions for roasting (page 171), to be applied here, and for the joints which follow. This joint should be well kept, and when the larder-accommodations of a house not are good, the butcher should be requested to hang it the proper time. Roast it carefully at a large sound fire, and let it remain at a considerable distance for at least a couple of hours; then draw it nearer, but never sufficiently so to burn or injure the fat. Keep it constantly basted; flour it soon after it is laid to the fire, instead of frothing it, as this latter mode is not generally relished, though fashion is in its favour. In from three and a half to four hours, the haunch will be done, and it will require something less of time when not kept back at first, as we have advised. Serve it with a good _Espagnole_, or with plain mutton-gravy and currant-jelly. This joint, when the meat is of very fine quality, may be dressed and served exactly like venison. 3-1/2 to