by Julia Child
LAMB
Agneau et Mouton
The French take great pride in their lamb and the marvelous quality of their mutton. While we do not easily find the little spring lambs of France in this country, nor the mutton, we are fortunate to have our own type of lamb, of the very finest quality and flavor, throughout the year. Many Americans are so wedded to beef that they forget about lamb, and this is a pity, because a fine leg of lamb roasted red and juicy is a feast for any meat lover. Although we thought we had covered a great deal in Volume I, with lamb stew, roasts in mustard coatings, garlic sauces, and even a boiled leg of lamb, there is more to tell. We now add full instructions on boning the leg, step-by-step illustrated directions on how to carve the saddle like a major-domo, a recipe for stuffed and braised shoulder, and complete drawings on how to make a gigot farci en croûte.
HOW TO BONE A LEG OF LAMB
A fully or partially boned leg of lamb is easy to carve, and you can stuff the cavities where the bones used to be. If only the tail and hip assembly has been removed from the raw meat, that alone is a great help to the carver, and when the main leg bone is also gone, carving is no problem at all. To show that it really is a leg of lamb you are serving, leave the shank bone in unless you want a rolled leg for spit roasting. Although most butchers will cut out the tail and hip for you, they may not want to take the time for a careful boning of the main leg portion. If you enjoy working with your hands, do all the boning yourself and you will learn more about meat and carving, because you will become familiar with the bones, their shapes, and their positions.
Furnish yourself with two stout-bladed, very sharp knives, one small and one larger. Always keeping the knife blade against the bone, scrape all around against the complicated structure of the tail-hip assembly, disfiguring the meat as little as possible, until you are able to cut the tendons that join the hip to the ball joint of the main leg bone, thus releasing the hip.
To remove the main leg bone, cut around its exposed ball joint buried in the thick end of the meat. Loosen flesh all around and down the bone inside the meat until you come to its opposite ball joint at the knee. You now have two choices, one easier and the other longer but cleverer. The easiest way to remove the bone is to slit the underside of the meat at the knee to expose the bones; making as small a hole outside as possible, cut around knee joint, sever tendons, and draw the bone out from the large end of the meat. Close the meat neatly at the knee by sewing or skewering. The longer maneuver is to get the bone without piercing the skin at the knee. By persistent poking and cutting around the bone inside the meat at the joint, by twisting the bone, by turning the meat inside out around the bone as far down as you can for better visibility, you will finally be able to free it from the tendons attaching it to the knee and pull the bone out.
The flap of meat that contained the hip and tail, at the large end of the leg, is called the sirloin. You may slice it off and use at another meal for roasting, steaks, or shishkebob, or you may grind part of it for stuffing back into the leg as suggested in the following recipe. (If you wish to leave the flap on, skewer it against the main body of the leg after stuffing.)
With the sirloin off, you have what is known as a short (or Frenched) leg of lamb. (For gigot farci en croûte, this is what you need.)
Either fill the pocket with stuffing, pushing it well down into all spaces left by the bones, or sprinkle in a flavoring of salt, pepper, minced parsley, a clove of minced garlic, and a big pinch of rosemary or thyme.
Whether filled or not, close the pocket with skewers and string.
RECIPES FOR BONED LEG OF LAMB
You may proceed with the recipe for gigot farci en croûte, or you may roast the boned, stuffed, and skewered leg of lamb just as it is, following the Master Recipe in Volume I, page 332; it is also delicious roasted with the herbal mustard coating also in Volume I, on page 335. After the roast has rested 15 to 20 minutes out of the oven, the meat will have settled into place and you can remove the string and skewers. To carve, cut down in bias (diagonal) slices across the grain, first from one side of the large end, then from the other; if the first few slices contain no stuffing, set aside for second helpings. When you come to the thinner portion of the meat nearer the shank, you can cut straight across.
GIGOT FARCI, EN CROÛTE
[Boned, Stuffed Lamb Baked in Pastry]
At least one great French provincial restaurant has made its reputation on gigot farci en croûte, and any home cook who has mastered French puff pastry or brioche dough can make this splendidly dramatic presentation every bit as well. The recipe consists of the boned and stuffed leg of lamb, illustrated in the preceding pages, which is first roasted in a very hot oven until partially cooked, then draped in pastry, decorated with pastry cutouts, glazed, and set back in the oven again to cook and brown the crust. Although you have to watch your timing on this so as not to overcook the lamb, it is reasonably amenable to delays as indicated by the asterisks (*) at the end of most of the steps in the recipe. Do go over it well before starting in, so that you will have a good idea of timing and of stopping points. We suggest that you make the pastry dough the day before serving. You might also bone the lamb, prepare the stuffing, and simmer the sauce called for in Step 7; the actual cooking will then be much simplified.
Even though you have the crust, there is not much of it per serving and you may also wish a potato dish such as the scalloped potatoes, gratin dauphinois, in Volume I on page 523, the gratin with cheese and cream following it, or the unusual potato and endive gratin. Brussels sprouts, broccoli, buttered spinach, or fresh green peas might also be included. This gigot naturally calls for the best in wines, giving you an opportunity to bring out your finest, château-bottled, red Bordeaux-Saint-Émilion.
THE CRUST, AND PUFF PASTRY VERSUS BRIOCHE DOUGH
Although puff pastry is traditional, it never quite cooks through when it covers rare-roasted meat, while brioche dough, if it is not allowed its final rise before baking, will form a crisp, brown crust. This question is discussed in the preamble to Beef Wellington, where you have the same choice.
For 10 to 12 people
1) Boning the lamb
An 8- to 9-lb. leg of lamb (5 to 6 lbs. boned and minus sirloin)
Following illustrated directions preceding this recipe, remove tail and hip bones, main leg bone, and sirloin meat from leg of lamb. (If you are going to make the brown sauce suggested for Step 7, start it now, using the bones and scraps from the lamb.)
2) Mushroom and kidney stuffing—farce duxelles aux rognons—2 cups
½ lb. (4 cups) fresh mushrooms
2 Tb butter and 1 Tb olive oil or cooking oil (more of each if needed)
A medium (10-inch) frying pan (no-stick recommended)
4 fine, fresh lamb kidneys, peeled and minced
3 Tb finely minced shallots or scallions
¼ cup port, Madeira, or Cognac
⅛ tsp each of ground thyme and rosemary
½ cup ground raw lamb (from the removed piece of sirloin)
¼ cup foie gras or mousse de foie (canned goose liver or liver mousse)
Optional but recommended: 1 or 2 minced truffles and their juice
Salt and pepper to taste
If needed: 2 or more Tb stale, not-too-fine crumbs from nonsweetened, homemade-type bread
Trim, wash, and dry the mushrooms. Chop into a fine mince with a big knife; a handful at a time, twist into a tight ball in the corner of a towel to extract as much juice as possible. Heat butter and oil in pan, and when butter foam has begun to subside, add the mushrooms. Sauté over moderately high heat, stirring, for several minutes, until mushroom pieces begin to separate from each other. Stir in the kidneys and shallots, adding a little more butter if you feel it necessary. Sauté, stirring, for 2 minutes, just to stiffen the kidneys. Pour in the wine or Cognac and herbs; boil down rapidly for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in the ground lamb. Mash foie gras or mousse with a fork and stir in also, along with optional truffl
es and their juice. Season carefully to taste. (If by any chance mixture seems too damp or loose, stir in a tablespoon or so of bread crumbs to hold it together more.)
3) Stuffing, tying, and skewering the lamb
Skewers and white string
Following the illustrated directions, pack the stuffing into the pockets left in the meat by the bones, skewer the large end of the meat, and lace closed with string.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: Recipe may be prepared to this point a day in advance. Note also that you may prepare the sauce, Step 7, in advance.
4) Preliminary roasting—30 minutes at 425 degrees, and a 30-minute rest
The stuffed and skewered lamb
A shallow roasting pan with rack
Cooking oil
Optional but recommended: an accurate meat thermometer
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wipe lamb thoroughly dry with paper towels and brush with cooking oil, especially on exposed lean-meat surfaces. Place on rack in roasting pan and set in upper-middle level of preheated oven. Basting once or twice with oil and turning meat once, roast 25 to 30 minutes, until lamb has swelled slightly and feels a little springy in contrast to its softer raw state. Meat thermometer reading: 120 degrees. Remove lamb from oven but leave string and skewers in place.
(*) RESTING AND AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTES: Lamb must rest for 30 minutes at least before final cooking, so that meat will draw together and hold stuffing in place. It must also cool off a little bit so that it will not overcook under its pastry, but it must not cool so much that it loses its juicy, freshly cooked character. If you are not ready to continue for some time, you may keep it perfectly for an hour or more anywhere that you can maintain a temperature of around 100 to 110 degrees, such as a warming oven, or the turned-off oven, reheating it for a moment every now and then.
5) Enclosing the lamb in pastry—preheat oven to 450 degrees for next step
Either the recipe for simple puff pastry;
Or the recipe for pain brioché dough, fully risen and ready to bake, but chilled
The still warm leg of lamb
A lightly greased jelly-roll pan, or edged baking sheet
Egg glaze (1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water in a small bowl)
A pastry brush
Optional but recommended: the meat thermometer
Remove string and skewers, and set lamb on pan or baking sheet. It is now to be enclosed in pastry; do so rapidly to prevent dough from softening and, in the case of brioche dough, from rising.
Rapidly roll pastry out into a flattened pear shape ¼ inch thick, 6 inches longer at the large end, and 6 inches wider than the leg of lamb. Starting at large end, unroll or unfold the pastry over the lamb.
Leaving an inch of the shank bone exposed, allow enough pastry to tuck in all around and enclose lamb completely; trim off excess. Push the pastry against the undersides of the meat with your fingers: the bottom of the lamb rests on the pan, and the pastry simply encloses all visible meat.
Make pastry cutouts with leftover dough, such as long strips ⅜ inch wide cut with a pastry wheel, and 2-inch ovals formed with a fluted cookie cutter. Paint top of covering dough with egg glaze, and press the decorations into place.
When all decorations are in place, brush surface of dough and decorations with egg glaze. Draw the tines of a table fork over glaze and lightly into dough, to make cross-hatch marks on entire surface. Insert optional meat thermometer where indicated, at a downward-slanting angle from shank so that point of thermometer lodges in the thickest portion of solid meat near large end. Immediately proceed to next step. (Note that if you are using brioche dough, you are not to let it rise; it is to be baked immediately.)
6) Final baking—25 to 30 minutes at 450 degrees and 400 degrees
Place in middle level of preheated oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until pastry has started to brown nicely; reduce heat to 400 degrees for the final 5 to 10 minutes of baking. Lamb is done to rosy rare at a thermometer reading of 130 degrees, or at the first sign of juices exuding from underside of lamb onto baking sheet. (NOTE: Some prefer lamb rarer, 125 degrees on the thermometer, while others like it medium rare, or around 140 to 145 degrees. Roast the lamb to the thermometer reading you prefer.)
Remove lamb from oven as soon as it is done; carefully lift it, and slide a rack under it so that the juices will not moisten the crust. Lamb should rest 15 to 20 minutes before carving. (When ready to serve, place lamb on platter, and pour any accumulated juices into whatever sauce you have prepared.)
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: Lamb will stay warm enough in its crust for 30 minutes; after that return to warming oven or anywhere that you can maintain a temperature of 110 to 120 degrees, where it may remain another half hour at least.
7) Serving
A hot, lightly buttered serving platter or a carving board
Optional but desirable: 3 cups excellent brown sauce made from the lamb bones and meat scraps (Volume I, pages 69–70), in a hot sauce bowl
Transfer lamb to platter or carving board, and pour any roasting juices into sauce. Make a presentation of the gigot, for all to admire. To carve, cut down in bias (diagonal) slices across the grain, first from one side of the large end, then from the other; if the first few slices contain no stuffing, set aside for second helpings. When you come to the thinner portion of the meat nearer the shank, you can cut straight across. Pass sauce separately, along with whatever vegetables you have chosen.
ÉPAULE D’AGNEAU FARCIE, VIROFLAY
[Braised, Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb]
Shoulder of lamb is far less expensive than leg of lamb, usually by at least a third, and is an elegant roast when stuffed and braised. The spinach and mushroom mixture suggested here makes attractive slices, and if you serve the potatoes in basil and whole baked tomatoes, you will have a colorful and fragrant main course. A red Bordeaux-Saint-Émilion would be an excellent choice of wine.
A NOTE ON BONED SHOULDER OF LAMB
Most markets will bone a lamb shoulder for you, or you will find them ready-boned, rolled, and tied; you untie and unroll them for stuffing. Ask also for a pound or so of sawed lamb bones, or for veal or beef bones, to give character to your braising liquid. (Full information on lamb shoulders is in Volume 1, page 330).
For 8 people
1) The mushroom duxelles and spinach stuffing—farce Viroflay
½ lb. (1 quart) fresh mushrooms
1 Tb butter
½ Tb cooking oil
A medium (10-inch) frying pan (no-stick recommended)
Salt and pepper
A 3-quart mixing bowl
Make a duxelles as follows: Trim, wash, and dry the mushrooms, and cut into 1⁄16-inch dice with a large knife. A handful at a time, twist hard in the corner of a towel, to extract as much of their juice as possible. Heat oil and butter to bubbling in pan, add mushrooms, and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently, until pieces begin to separate from each other, and start to brown very lightly. Stir in salt and pepper to taste, and scrape into mixing bowl.
1½ cups cooked spinach (or a 10-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed in a pan of cold water and drained)
2 Tb butter
3 Tb minced shallots or scallions
A large clove garlic, mashed
Salt and pepper
A handful at a time, squeeze as much water as possible out of the spinach; chop fine with a large stainless-steel knife. Melt the additional butter in the frying pan over moderately high heat, stir in the shallots or scallions, and cook for 1 minute. Then stir in the spinach and garlic, and cook, stirring, for several minutes to evaporate remaining liquid from spinach. When it begins sticking lightly to bottom of pan, remove from heat; season to taste with salt and pepper, and scrape into bowl with mushrooms.
½ cup (1½ ounces) not-too-fine stale crumbs from nonsweetened, homemade-type white bread in a small bowl
2 to 3 Tb stock, bouillon, or milk
⅔ cup (4 ounces) finely diced ham fat, fresh pork fat, or blanched bacon<
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1 egg
8 to 10 large fresh basil leaves, minced, or ½ tsp fragrant dried basil, thyme, or rosemary
Salt and pepper
Soften the crumbs with the stock, bouillon, or milk and let stand for a few minutes. Beat the ham fat, egg, and herbs into the mushrooms and spinach. Squeeze excess liquid out of crumbs and beat them in too. Taste stuffing very carefully for seasoning.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: May be done a day in advance; cover and refrigerate.
2) Stuffing the lamb
A 5- to 6-lb. shoulder of lamb, fell intact, all excess fat cut out; bones removed, chopped, and reserved (ready-to-stuff weight about 3½ lbs.)
A trussing needle or skewers
White string
Spread boned shoulder on a board, fell (skin) side down. Tuck stuffing into pockets left by bones, and pile rest of stuffing in a loaf shape down center of meat. Sew or skewer edges of meat together to enclose stuffing completely. (Do not overfill lamb.) Tie into a sausage shape with loops of string at 1-inch intervals around circumference. Dry thoroughly with paper towels before browning, next step.