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LAMB, BREAST OF, BRAISED (another way)
Braise a breast of lamb as in the last recipe. When sufficiently cooked, take out the bones, put the meat between two dishes, lay a weight upon the top, and let it remain until cold. Cut it into neat pieces, the size and shape of cutlets. Let these be heated in some of the liquid in which the meat was braised, glaze them, and place them in a circle on a dish, with fine green peas in the centre.
A two-stage dish: the breast is braised, boned and pressed flat, then cut and reheated in its own liquor. The pressing is the point — it turns a fatty, awkward cut into something that slices cleanly.
- The hinge: bone it hotThe rib bones and cartilage pull out cleanly only while the meat is still very warm. Let it cool first and you will be picking and tearing, and the pressed slab will not hold together.
- Braising temperatureThe original gives no temperature or time, and the braise it refers back to is the preceding recipe. In a modern oven a low braise (roughly 300-325F for a couple of hours) will get a breast to the point where the bones pull free; a breast is collagen-heavy and needs time rather than heat.
- Pressing safely"Between two dishes with a weight" works, but chill it in the refrigerator rather than leaving cooked meat on the counter overnight. Two or three pounds of weight — a filled saucepan does — for at least four hours, ideally overnight.
- Skim the liquorBreast of lamb throws a great deal of fat. Chill the braising liquid separately and lift the solid cap off before you reheat the cutlets in it, or the finished plate will be greasy.
- What "glaze" means hereReduce the skimmed braising liquid until it is syrupy and coats a spoon, then brush it over the hot pieces. This is a meat glaze in the Victorian sense, not a sugar glaze.
- Cutting to shapeThe recipe asks only for 'neat pieces, the size and shape of cutlets', so cut to whatever a cutlet-sized piece is on your breast, trimmed square. Egging and crumbing the pressed pieces before frying is a well-known related treatment, though this version keeps them plain and glazed.
- The peas"Fine green peas" means young, small peas — frozen petits pois are closer to the intended thing than large fresh ones. Dress them with butter only; the glaze supplies the seasoning.
- YieldA whole breast of lamb is usually somewhere around 2 to 3 lb bone-in, which should give roughly six to eight pressed pieces, enough for three or four.
Breast of lamb was one of the cheapest cuts on the Victorian butcher's block — fatty, bony and slow to cook — and this recipe is a standard piece of household economy dressed up to look like something else. Braising, boning, pressing and cutting to the size and shape of cutlets turns an inexpensive cut into a dish that can be arranged in a circle on a dish with peas in the centre, the presentation the period expected of a proper entrée. The same manoeuvre lies behind the grilled "epigrams" of lamb familiar from cookery books of the period, which are likewise made from pressed breast. The technique of weighting cooked meat until cold, so that the gelatin sets it into a sliceable block, is the same principle behind brawn and pressed tongue, both staples of the same kitchens.