One must fill the mouth according to the food bag. (From Romerike.)
Have you ever tried buying a whole or half sheep carcass? If not, then give it a try. In September you get the very choicest and suitably fat animals. How, then, is it best handled?
The animal is first split lengthwise, and the legs are cut away. Now one can choose two things, either to use the one fresh and salt the other as a cured leg, or to brine-cure both. It perhaps depends for the most part on the man of the house's taste, but if it is to be salted, then do it in the following way: 3 dcl. syrup, 100 gr. sugar, 40 gr. saltpeter, 2¼ l. kitchen salt, 4 dcl. water, 1 tsp. pepper. Everything is stirred together, and the leg of mutton is rubbed well with the brine. Let it lie in this 10 days, turning and basting it daily. It is then placed in a brine boiled from 5 l. water, 1½ kg. salt, 400 gr. sugar, and 30 gr. saltpeter. Let it lie in this 8 days. Hung up for 1 week, after which it is sent for smoking and hung to cure for about 6 months.
If you roast an ordinary good leg of mutton, and that is indeed one of the best things one can get, then pour over it 2 dcl. strong coffee mixed with 6 sugar cubes and 2 tbsp. cream half an hour or so before the roast is done; it gives an excellent flavor.
From the flanks and neck, mutton roll is made. Pound the flank well and cover it with finger-thick strips of meat from the neck piece, or, if one wishes to spend it, some of the shoulder.