14
ENTRÉES.
each cutlet on a wetted chopping board and beat or “bat” it out with either the side of the cutlet knife or with a cutlet bat, or, failing these, with the rolling pin; only remember whatever you use must first be wetted with a little water. When properly batted out, the meat will have become a little spread out, and even with the edge of the bone. Now trim it neatly, removing all superfluous fat and skin, leaving only an even layer or border of the former about 1in. thick all round as in Fig 1; then just where the lean meat stops make a straight cut right down to the bone, as at B D, and then clear the bone down to C from all flesh, skin, etc., scraping it nicely. When all the cutlets have been trimmed in this way, the bones being all cut to an equal length and scraped till clean and shining, remove the little bit of bone which is almost always left at the thicker end at F. A butcher does this with one sweep of his heavy knife, but for the amateur it is better to set the knife carefully on the right spot, and then separate off the bone by a sharp blow on the back of the knife with the rolling-pin. The illustration just mentioned shows the cutlet trimmed and un- trimmed. The shaded part from F to F shows the chine bone which the butcher should remove, whilst the rest of the shading from F to G is what the cook must trim off. It is a matter of taste and expediency whether the meat is trimmed off by the straight line B D, or by the curved one E under- neath it. Cutlets thus trimmed may be broiled, sautés, or egged and crumbed and fried in the frying basket, as you please. Loin cutlets are occasionally