This recipe can be varied either by preparing the leg with a stuffing, placed in the cavity after having the bone removed, or cooking it without.  Having lined the bottom of a thick iron kettle or stewpan with a few thin slices of bacon, put over the bacon four carrots, three onions, a bunch of savory herbs; then over these place the leg of mutton.  Cover the whole with a few more slices of bacon, then pour over half a pint of water.  Cover with a tight cover and stew very gently for four hours, basting the leg occasionally with its own liquor, and seasoning it with salt and pepper as soon as it begins to be tender.  When cooked strain the gravy, thicken with a spoonful of flour (it should be quite brown), pour some of it over the meat and send the remainder to the table in a tureen, to be served with the mutton when carved.  Garnish the dish around the leg with potatoes cut in the shape of olives and fried a light brown in butter.

LEG OF MUTTON A LA VENISON.

Remove all the rough fat from the mutton and lay it in a deep earthen dish; rub into it thoroughly the following:  One tablespoonful of salt, one each of celery-salt, brown sugar, black pepper, English mustard, allspice, and some sweet herbs, all powdered and mixed; after which pour over it slowly a teacup of good vinegar, cover tightly, and set in a cool place four or five days, turning it and basting often with the liquid each day.  To cook, put in a kettle a quart of boiling water, place over it an inverted shallow pan, and on it lay the meat just as removed from the pickle; cover the kettle tightly and stew for four hours.  Do not lat the water touch the meat.  Add a cup of hot water to the pickle remaining and baste with it.  When done, thicken the liquid with flour and strain through a fine sieve, to serve with the meat; also a relish of currant jelly, the dame as for venison.

This is a fine dish when the directions are faithfully followed.

STEAMED LEG OF MUTTON.

Wash and put the leg in a steamer and cook it until tender, then place in a roasting pan, salt and dredge well with flour and set it in a hot oven until nicely browned; the water that remains in the bottom of the steamer may be used for soup.  Serve with currant jelly.

HASHED MUTTON.

Cut into small pieces the lean of some cold mutton that has been underdone, and season it with pepper and salt.  Take the bones and other trimmings, put them in a sauce-pan with as much water as will cover them, and some sliced onions, and let them stew till you have drawn from them a good gravy.  Having skimmed it well, strain the gravy into a stew-pan, and put the mutton into it.  Have ready-boiled some carrots, turnips, potatoes and onions.  Slice them and add to the meat and gravy.  Set the pan on the fire and let it simmer till the meat is warmed through, but do not allow it to boil, as it has been once cooked already.  Cover the bottom of the dish with slices of buttered toast.  Lay the meat and vegetables upon it, and pour over them the gravy.