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For Canning Roast Mutton

Canned roast mutton prepared by soaking, boiling, cutting, packing, and pressure‑cooking in sealed cans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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For Canning Roast Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Soak the breast of mutton in a 30° salt brine for 10 to 12 hours to extract the blood.

  2. Remove the mutton from the brine.

  3. Cook the mutton in boiling water for 20 minutes.

  4. Cut the meat into small pieces.

Can and seal

  1. Add 2 ounces of cold water to the bottom of each can.

  2. Pack the meat into the can until the water reaches the top.

  3. Seal the can, leaving a small hole at the top.

  4. Insert the can into boiling water for 10 minutes.

  5. Remove the can from the boiling water and seal the hole.

Cook and cool

  1. Cook the sealed can in boiling water for 2.5 hours.

  2. Cool the cans in cold water, top side up, for 15 minutes.

  3. Turn the cans bottom side up and let them cool completely until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Breast of mutton
Provides the meat that is cooked, packed and set in the can.
Salt brine
Draws out blood from the meat during the long soak, as the record states.
Cold water
Added to each can to fill the space around the packed meat.

The step that matters

Sealing the can with a small hole, then sealing it fully after the 10-minute boil. The hole lets steam and trapped air escape during heating so pressure does not build up unevenly. Sealing it fully only after that step keeps the contents airtight for the long cook that follows.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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