Castradina

Castradina is smoked leg of mutton in a soup made by adding cabbage, onions and wine.

Venetians traditionally enjoy Castradina on the feast of the Madonna della Salute as a tribute to the loyalty of the people of Dalmatia who, during Venice's plague-induced isolation (1347-1348), were the only neighboring state (located on the coast of modern day Croatia) to provide Venice with food: mutton sheep were readily available in Dalmatia.

During those eighteen months of isolation the Venetians ate almost nothing else; in memory of that time, the tradition of eating smoked mutton soup on November 21 has been carried forward to this day and age.

Castradina

Chop a leg of smoked mutton into pieces and leave it to boil for about two hours. After the first half-hour of cooking, throw away the water (and the fat), replace it and continue to boil. Then add some Savoy cabbage, previously chopped and browned in a pan with plenty of onion. Continue cooking for another hour. Add salt and pepper.

I learned of this dish on that rainy Saturday before Easter when an un-umbrella-ed Edwin Yowell, who flies often to Venice for lunch and who is also a grand devotee of Greenmarket, strolled by the stand with a red snapper from the fishmonger and stopped as he noticed the lamb bacon in the cooler.  Interested, he was.  In our ensuing conversation I mentioned that I had smoked mutton too: his eyes lit up as he uttered "Castradina," properly rolling his "rrr's" like a man who knows his gondolas  "Tell me more..." I said.  He did, and the rest is history.

§§§

I emailed Edwin informing him that I'd published a recipe for Castradina on my sheep blog.  What follows is our correspondence of Thursday afternoon as the pot thickens.

Edwin Yowell:
Well done, I am going to try it (the recipe) today, I'll let you know how it goes.  Btw, do you think it is really necessary to dump the water, or just skim the fat from it?

Eugene Wyatt:
Taste the broth, then decide to skim or throw, or how much to throw; the recipe comes from the City of Venice website and I omitted the recipe's coda: "It is an extremely tasty dish: it is advisable to let your guests know what you are cooking, because its strong flavour is not to everybody's taste."

Let me know how it cooks up...the recipe is peasant simple and probably will leave your guests craving more.

Edwin Yowell:
Yes, the Italian caveat was a good one.

Eugene Wyatt:
There is great variation in mutton's strength of flavor from sheep to sheep...much more so than from lamb to lamb; there is mild mutton too, only a taste will tell.

Good luck.

Edwin Yowell:
Geez  Do you know what boiling smoked mutton smells like?

Eugene Wyatt:
Kinda, I know what bacon made from mutton smells like frying which is indistinguishable from lamb; I had the butcher discontinue mutton bacon as it was jerky-chewy rather than smelly.

My guess is the smoked smell is noticeable while cooking.  Note: the mutton soaked in a brine of brown sugar and salt for almost 4 days before it was cherry smoked for 12 hours where it lost a third of its weight, mostly water I would suspect.  

But if you're getting cold feet, throw the broth rather than skim the fat from it.   Just wait though, until you add the cabbage to the boiling mutton…your tenants downstairs will think about moving out.

Lynyrd Skynyrd:
"Ooh, ooh that smell, Can't you smell that smell?"

Edwin Yowell:
Ok, I tasted the broth and will put the already sautéed cabbage and onions in it after skimming fat.  I figure your smoked mutton is probably higher quality than what the Dalmatians sent the Venetians.

Eugene Wyatt:
The Doge wanted the oldest sheep the Dalmatians could find; he figured those strong muttony odors wafting along the canals kept the plague at bay.

Edwin Yowell:
Well, I added the cabbage to the reduced stock that I did not toss. It is terrific!