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Roast Shoulder of Lamb
Order a shoulder and fore-leg of lamb, boned. Wipe, stuff and truss in shape. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and dredge with flour. Place on rack in dripping pan, put in hot oven and baste with dripping melted in one cup hot water, as soon as flour begins to brown; continue basting every fifteen minutes until meat is done, which will require about two hours; add one cup of stock to pan while meat is cooking. When richly browned cover closely and finish cooking. To carve a boned leg of lamb, cut in thin slices across the grain, beginning at top of shoulder. When trussed in shape meat looks like a goose without wings or legs.
A boned, stuffed shoulder rolled and tied — the sort of joint a butcher once prepared as a matter of course. Everything here depends on the tie and on the internal temperature, since the stuffing sits in the middle of the meat.
- Ask the butcher"Shoulder and fore-leg, boned" is a whole lamb forequarter with the blade, arm and shank bones removed; boneless, such a joint would typically run in the region of 4 to 5 lb. Many butchers will bone and tie a shoulder if asked in advance.
- Oven temperatureA "hot oven" in this period is usually reckoned at roughly 425–450F. Start there long enough to set the flour crust, then moderate the heat, around 350F, for the remainder. The recipe's own instruction is simply to "cover closely and finish cooking" once the joint is richly browned.
- The stuffing is the hingeBecause the forcemeat is enclosed in rolled meat, it must reach 165F even if you like the lamb pink. Take the reading in the centre of the stuffing, not the meat. A dry bread stuffing, packed loosely, is safer and cooks faster than a moist one.
- TrussingLay the boned shoulder skin down, spread the stuffing thinly, roll from the thick side and tie with butcher's twine at 1-inch intervals. The "goose without wings or legs" comparison is the shape you are aiming for: a compact, even cylinder that cooks at one rate.
- Dredging and bastingThe flour dredge browns into a crust and thickens the pan liquid; it is the gravy base, not a coating. Basting every fifteen minutes for two hours is unnecessary with a modern sealed oven — every 30 minutes is plenty, and the cup of stock keeps the pan drippings from scorching.
- DrippingMelted beef or lamb dripping was the standard basting fat. Rendered lamb fat, or plain butter, does the same job.
- TimingTwo hours is about right for a 4–5 lb rolled shoulder at these temperatures, but go by thermometer, not clock. Rest the joint 15–20 minutes before slicing or the stuffing will slump out.
- YieldA boned forequarter of this size would likely serve six to eight, with the stuffing counting as part of the portion.
The boned and rolled shoulder was the thrifty end of the lamb, and the reason it gets a stuffing at all: shoulder is fattier, more awkwardly boned and cheaper than the leg, and enclosing a bread forcemeat stretches it further while making it carveable in neat slices. Elizabeth O. Hiller's Fifty-Two Sunday Dinners (1913) is built around exactly this logic — a single showpiece roast per week, sized to a family table, with a menu around it. The instruction to carve "across the grain, beginning at top of shoulder" is a reminder that home carving at the table was still an expected skill, and that a joint was judged partly on whether it would slice cleanly in front of guests.