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Lamb: Stewed with Pease
Cut the neck or breast in pieces, put it in a stew-pan with some salt pork sliced thin, and enough water to cover it; cover close and let stew until the meat is tender, then skim free from scum, add a quart of green pease shelled, and more hot water, if necessary; cover till the pease are done tender, then add a bit of butter rolled in flour, and pepper to taste; let simmer for a few minutes and serve.
A plain braise that depends on two things: cooking the lamb long enough for the collagen in neck and breast to give way, and cooking the peas barely at all.
- The cutLamb neck and breast are bone-in, fatty and full of connective tissue; they need 1½ to 2 hours at a bare simmer to become tender. Neck slices (sometimes sold as neck chops) work best. Do not substitute leg or loin, which will only dry out over that time.
- Salt porkRoughly 2 to 3 oz for 2 lb of lamb, sliced thin, is enough to season the pot. Modern salt pork is saltier than most cured belly, so hold back any additional salt until the stew is finished. Unsmoked pork belly or thick bacon will do, though bacon brings smoke the original did not intend.
- A quart of green peaseIt is unclear whether the quart is measured in the pod or already shelled; the yield differs greatly either way. Something on the order of two cups of shelled peas suits about 2 lb of meat. Frozen peas are an honest substitute and need only 3 to 4 minutes.
- Peas go in last, and brieflyFresh shelled peas are done in 5 to 8 minutes; young ones sooner. Much past about 10 minutes they turn grey and mealy, so read 'cover till the pease are done tender' conservatively.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié: knead about 1 tablespoon soft butter with 1 tablespoon flour to a paste and whisk it into the simmering liquid in small pieces. It thickens the broth to a light sauce in two or three minutes. Adding dry flour instead will leave lumps.
- SkimmingSkim the grey scum in the first 15 minutes, then again after the meat is tender, when a good deal of fat will have rendered from the breast and the pork. Lamb fat congeals unpleasantly, so take off all but a thin film.
- YieldServes 4 as written with about 2 lb of bone-in lamb. Bread or boiled potatoes carry the broth well.
Lamb and green peas were a fixed seasonal pairing in nineteenth-century American and English cooking, tied to the fact that both arrived together in late spring — new-season lamb and the first shelled peas from the kitchen garden. Cookbooks of the period tended to give the roast-leg-and-peas version for company and this sort of stew for the cheap ends of the animal, which is why the recipe specifies neck or breast. The thin slices of salt pork stand in for the flavor and fat that a young, lean animal lacks. Thickening at the last moment with butter kneaded into flour, rather than building a roux at the start, is often said to have been a common domestic method before packaged cornstarch.