Modern cookery for private families

seasoning of mixed spice, and of savoury herbs minced extremely fine or dried and reduced to powder, and with these lard the inside of the boned portion of the joint; or fill the cavity with forcemeat highly seasoned with eschalot or garlic. Sew up the meat, and place it in a braising-pan or ham-kettle nearly of its size, with slices of bacon under and over it, two or three onions, four or five carrots, two bay leaves, a large bunch of savoury herbs, a few bones, or bits of undressed mutton or veal, and about three quarters of a pint of gravy. Stew the meat as softly as possible from four to five hours, and keep live embers on the pan (or, as this mode of cooking is not general in England, set the mutton, if it can be done conveniently, into a moderately-heated oven, after having luted the edges of the vessel in which it is arranged with a bit of coarse paste); lift it out, strain the gravy, reduce it quickly to glaze, and brush the meat with it; or merely strain, free it from fat, and pour it over the mutton. White beans (_haricots blancs_), boiled tender and well drained, or a mild ragout of garlic or eschalots, may be laid in the dish under it. The joint can be braised equally well without any part of it being boned. 3 to 5 hours. LEG OF MUTTON BONED AND FORCED. Select for this dish a joint of South Down or of any other delicate-sized mutton, which has been kept sufficiently long to render it very tender. Lay it on a clean cloth spread upon a table, and turn the underside upwards. With a sharp-edged boning-knife cut through the middle of the skin, from the knuckle to the first joint, and raise it from the flesh on the side along which the bone runs, until the knife is just above it, then cut through the flesh down to the bone; work the knife round it in every part till you reach the socket; next remove the flat bone