Colonial America: Preparing Mutton, Lamb, Mashed Potatoes, Turnips and Corn Cakes


Some of these recipes require the cook to go outside and carve the desired quantity for the meal of the day.  Fortunately, we can rely on our neighborhood butcher or local supermarket to provide those perfect roasts and cutlets.

Recipes based on Godey’s, January 1864.

Fillet of Mutton

  • Cut a fillet or round from a leg of mutton; remove all the fat from the outside, and take out the bone
  • Beat it well on all sides with a rolling-pin, to make it more tender, and rub it slightly all over with a very little pepper and salt
  • Have ready a stuffing made of finely minced onions, bread-crumbs or leave a loaf of bread out overnight to become stale and break into crumbs and butter
  • Season with a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and well mixed
  • Fill with some of this stuffing, the place of the bone
  • Make deep incisions or cuts all over the surface of the meat, and fill them closely with the same stuffing. Bind a tape [cord] round the meat to keep it in shape
  • Put it into a stew-pan, with just water enough to cover it, and let it stew slowly and steadily during four, five, or six hours, in proportion to its size [about 30 minutes per pound]; skimming it frequently
  • When done, serve it up with its own gravy

Minced Mutton

  • Take the lean of some cold roast mutton
  • Chop it very fine, adding a small minced onion and sweet marjoram; and season it with pepper and salt
  • Put it into a stewpan, with some of the gravy that has been left from the day before, and let it stew for a quarter of an hour
  • Then put it [two-thirds full] into a deep dish
  • Fill up the dish with mashed turnips, heaped high in the center, smoothed on the surface, and browned with a salamander or a red-hot shovel

Lean cold beef or cold roast pork can be used instead; with beef, use [mashed] potatoes and omit the sweet marjoram; with pork, flavor the seasoning with a little chopped sage and cover the top with sweet [mashed] potato or apple sauce.

Stewed Lamb

  • Take a fine quarter of lamb and, for a large dish, cut the whole of it into steaks; for a small dish, cut up the loin only ; or slice onth the leg.
  • Remove the skin and all the fat [hopefully, your butcher did that for you]
    • The copyright of the article Colonial America: Preparing Mutton, Lamb, Mashed Potatoes, Turnips and Corn Cakes in 19th Century Recipes is owned by Pat Williams. Permission to republish Colonial America: Preparing Mutton, Lamb, Mashed Potatoes, Turnips and Corn Cakes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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