TRIMMING CUTLETS.
Independently of the method in which you propose to cook them, a great deal depends upon the careful trimming of a dish of mutton lamb or veal cutlets. How uninviting do these miniature chops look when they have been cut anyhow from the joint to which they belonged? Do not leave this to the butcher. Let us take the best end of a neck of mutton. First, saw off the chine bone, then saw the ends of the row of bones level, and cut off the outer flap; now take a very sharp knife, and divide the row of cutlets down to the bone with one clean decided cut between each of them, and, lastly, sever them one by one with a single light stroke of the chopper. Next, lay them on your board, which should be slightly wetted, and give them a few strokes with your cutlet bat, take off all gristle and superfluous fat, trim them into shape, removing all meat for about an inch in length at the end of the bone, and then place them in the marinade. The hungry man may be able, no doubt, to eat the cutlets his cook may send him, “rough hew them as she may,” but for an entrée we must study appearance. All thrifty cooks should carefully save the scraps of trimmings, the outer flap, and the ends of bone, which were cut off in shaping the cutlets, for from them a broth for the sauce which is to accompany the dish can, with a little assistance, be composed.
Little paper frills placed round the ends of the bones of the cutlets before serving give a finish to your entrée.