Brits to the rescue

I am always amazed at how you can ask an obscure question on the internet and within a few hours come up with an answer!

The question was what this fancy food concoction is, pictured on a needlepoint panel in the International Honor Quilt project.

Four readers directed me to a page from Mrs. Beeton's cookbook that has to be the model for this panel.

But what is it?  You find it on a page called "cold collations" and this one is entitled "lamb cutlets."  What's a cold collation?

Apparently we would call it a buffet -- a bunch of cold foods arrayed on a bountiful table with an eye to visual as well as culinary appeal.  (And some writers suggested the visual could greatly outdo the culinary.)

So I think I can see the lamb chop shapes in the needlepoint panel; the one on the top seems to have a little paper frill on the tip of its bone (it looked like a puff of steam to me at first).  But I still have no idea what else we're looking at.

How come the lamb chops are white?  Are they propped or mayonnaised into position around a round loaf of rye bread or a pudding, or is it a thin food shell over a plain upended bowl?  What makes up the green and red decorations? What's the braid effect at the bottom?

Way more questions than I had to begin with.

But a huge thank you to the readers who again stepped up to help allay my ignorance.  You're wonderful!