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Boiled Stuffed Leg of Lamb
Have small, tender leg of lamb, and remove bone. Make forcemeat of 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms cut in pieces, 1/2 cup chopped boiled ham, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, and 2 tablespoons melted Crisco. Season with pepper and salt, and put into the lamb in place of removed bone. Tie it up well, wrap in piece of cheesecloth, and boil in salted water, having juice 1/2 lemon, 1 onion, and few branches of parsley in it. Serve with currant jelly sauce; that is, 4 tablespoons butter melted together with 1/2 tumbler currant jelly and 1/2 glass white wine.
A boned leg poached in aromatic water — a Victorian and Edwardian English method that keeps the meat pale and moist. Two things matter: the water must never actually boil, and the stuffing has to be packed tightly enough to slice.
- Do not boil itDespite the title, hold the water at a bare simmer, 180-190F, with the surface barely trembling. A rolling boil squeezes the muscle and leaves the outer inch dry and stringy while the centre is still raw.
- Size and timingThe recipe gives no weight; a "small, tender leg" boned out is likely somewhere around 4 to 5 lb, which at a simmer will want roughly 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours. Because the cavity is filled with a ham-and-mushroom forcemeat, take the temperature at the centre of the stuffing rather than aiming for pink lamb — 165F there is the usual figure for stuffed joints.
- CriscoIntroduced in 1911 and still sold, though reformulated. Any neutral solid shortening works; melted butter gives the forcemeat more flavour.
- Tumbler and glassA tumbler was commonly reckoned at about 8 fl oz in this period, though usage varied, which would make half a tumbler of currant jelly roughly 1/2 cup. "Half a glass" of white wine is looser still — start at 1/4 cup and adjust to taste; the sauce should be tart and glossy, not thin.
- The sauce will separateButter, jelly and wine emulsify only briefly. Warm them gently until the jelly dissolves, whisk, and serve at once in a warmed boat; do not let it sit over heat or the butter will break out.
- Mushrooms and moistureHalf a pound of raw mushrooms releases a great deal of liquid inside the sealed joint. Sauté them first until the pan is dry, or the forcemeat will be soupy and will leak through the cheesecloth.
- Tying and wrappingTruss at 1-inch intervals with butcher's twine before wrapping in cheesecloth, and leave long tails on the cloth so you can lift the joint out cleanly. Rest 15 minutes before slicing.
- YieldNo yield is given; a leg of this size should serve about 6 to 8. The strained poaching liquid is a good light lamb broth and is worth keeping.
A Calendar of Dinners belongs to a genre of cookbook that was really advertising: it was published by Procter & Gamble to persuade cooks that Crisco, launched in 1911, could stand in for butter and lard anywhere in the kitchen, which is why the shortening turns up in a forcemeat where an older English cook would more likely have used suet or butter. The dish itself is older than the book — boiled leg of lamb or mutton served with currant jelly was familiar English practice, the sharp red jelly playing much the same role that mint sauce plays with roast lamb, and boning a leg to fill it with stuffing has a French counterpart in gigot farci. Whatever the reason for boiling rather than roasting, it produces a joint that carves in neat rounds with the forcemeat at the centre of each slice.