Breast of Mutton in Ragout

History

As printed in Mary Randolph's The Virginia House-Wife, the recipe reads in full: 'Prepare the breast as for boiling, brown it nicely in the oven, have a rich gravy well seasoned and thickened with brown flour, stew the mutton in it till sufficiently done, and garnish with forcemeat balls fried'. The Virginia House-Wife is an 1824 cookbook by Mary Randolph (1762–1828), considered the first regional American cookbook, its recipes noted for a Virginian style drawing on African, Native American, and European foods. The dish's name reflects two English-kitchen borrowings from French: 'ragout' entered English in the 1650s from French ragoût, from ragoûter 'awaken the appetite', denoting a highly seasoned stew; 'forcemeat', the fried garnish, is finely chopped seasoned meat, a word dating to the 1680s from 'force' (to stuff, a variant of farce) plus 'meat'. Beyond the recipe text, its placement in the book, and these word origins, the record does not document a specific inventor, court, region of origin, or transmission route for this preparation.

Ingredients

• breast of mutton
• gravy
• brown flour
• forcemeat balls

Instructions

1. Prepare the breast of mutton as for boiling. Brown it nicely in the oven. Prepare a rich gravy, well seasoned and thickened with brown flour. Stew the mutton in the gravy until sufficiently done. Garnish with fried forcemeat balls.