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Lamb, Baked, and Rosemary
Butter a baking-dish, and lay in it one or two sprigs of rosemary and two bay-leaves. Place upon these any joint of lamb weighing four or five pounds, first seasoning it with pepper and salt. Put a quarter of a pint of stock at the bottom of the pan, and place two ounces of fresh butter, divided into small pieces, here and there upon the meat. Put the dish in a moderate oven, baste the lamb frequently, and when done enough, skim the fat from the gravy, and serve it strained over the joint. Time to bake, about an hour. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. Sufficient for half a dozen persons.
A straightforward roast in a shallow dish, with the herbs beneath the meat rather than on it so they perfume the gravy instead of scorching. Two things need translating: the oven and the timing.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 350F/180C. If you want colour on the fat, start at 425F/220C for the first 15 minutes and drop back.
- A quarter of a pint of stockAn imperial quarter-pint is 5 fl oz, so a scant two-thirds of a US cup. It is there to keep the herbs and drippings from burning, not to braise the joint; top it up with a splash if the dish runs dry during basting.
- The hour is short, deliberatelyThe hour is short -- About an hour for a 4-5 lb joint works out near 13 minutes to the pound, which gives pink meat. Use a thermometer: 130-135F for a leg or rack you want rosy, 145F if you prefer it firm.
- Choose the joint accordinglyLeg, rack and loin suit this timing. A shoulder is tougher and full of connective tissue; it wants either much longer at 300F or a different recipe.
- Herbs underneathSitting in the buttered dish with the stock, the rosemary and bay steep rather than char. Keep the sprigs whole so they can be lifted out before straining.
- Basting and the fatBaste every 15-20 minutes. The instruction to skim before serving matters more than it sounds: 2 oz butter plus rendered lamb fat makes a greasy gravy otherwise. Tip the pan, spoon the fat off, then strain.
- Rest itThe original does not say so, but let the joint stand 15 minutes under loose foil before carving, and keep the strained gravy hot separately.
- Yield and costSix servings, as stated. The 3s. 6d. is a Victorian price for the joint and is of historical interest only.
Cassell's ran to thousands of short entries of exactly this kind, arranged alphabetically and written for a household with a cook rather than for a chef: a joint, a moderate oven, a stated time, a probable cost and the number of people fed. The costings are one of the more telling details, since they let a mistress of a house check the kitchen accounts. Lamb with rosemary is old enough that no origin can be fixed to it, though the pairing is commonly associated with the Mediterranean, where rosemary grows wild on the hillsides that flocks graze. "Baked" here simply distinguishes an oven dish from meat turned before the fire, which in Victorian households was generally held to be the superior method.