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LAMB, BREAST OF, BROILED (another way)
Take two breasts of lamb, trim them neatly, remove the tendons, and tie the joints together. Simmer them gently, as in the last recipe, until the bones can be drawn out easily, then remove these, sprinkle salt and pepper over the meat, and place it between two dishes. Put a weight on the top, and let it remain until cold. When wanted for use, cut the meat into neat pieces, brush these over twice with egg and bread-crumbs, and broil them over a clear fire until brightly browned on both sides. Dish them neatly, and send brown gravy and tomato or piquant sauce to table with them. Time, eight or ten minutes to broil the lamb. Sufficient for four or five persons. Probable cost, 6d. to 8d. per pound.
A two-stage recipe: the breasts are braised until boneless, pressed flat under weight, then crumbed and grilled. The pressing is the step that makes it work, and it needs several hours.
- The hinge is the pressOnce boned, the hot meat must be weighted between two plates until completely cold — several hours, ideally overnight in the refrigerator. This compacts the loose layers of meat and fat into a slab firm enough to cut into neat pieces; skip it and the meat falls apart on the grill.
- "Simmer as in the last recipe"The cross-reference points to the preceding recipe, which is not reproduced here, so the exact liquid and aromatics cannot be confirmed; a bare simmer in water or light stock is the usual reading. Reckon on 1.5 to 2 hours for the rib bones to pull out cleanly.
- Breast of lamb todayUsually sold as an untrimmed rolled joint or as riblets, and often needs ordering from a butcher. Two breasts is roughly 3 to 4 lb bone-in. It is very fatty; trim the heaviest surface fat before simmering and lift the set fat off the chilled cooking liquid.
- "Brush over twice with egg and bread-crumbs"Two full coatings — egg, crumbs, egg again, crumbs again — which gives a crust sturdy enough for direct heat. Use dry fine crumbs, not fresh, and let the coated pieces rest 15 minutes before cooking.
- Broiling over a clear fire"Clear" means the coals have burnt down past flaming. Under a modern gas broiler set it high with the rack a few inches below the element, or use a charcoal grill over settled coals; 8 to 10 minutes total, turning once, is right because the meat is already cooked through and you are only browning.
- Fat flare-upsBreast renders a great deal of fat, and dripping onto open coals will flame and blacken the crumbs. Keep a cooler zone on the grill to move pieces to, or broil on a slotted pan set over a tray.
- Sauces"Piquant sauce" is generally a brown sauce sharpened with vinegar and shallot, often with gherkin. A tomato sauce or any sharp brown gravy serves the same purpose: cutting the richness of the fat.
- YieldFour to five as written. The pressed slab can be cut and crumbed a day ahead and grilled to order.
Breast of lamb was one of the cheap cuts Victorian cookery writers took an interest in rehabilitating — the "probable cost, 6d. to 8d. per pound" places it well below chops, and Cassell's here gives such a joint an alternative treatment. The method here, braise then press then crumb and grill, is often described as a characteristic nineteenth-century English handling of a fatty, gelatinous cut: long moist cooking to soften the connective tissue, weighting to make the shapeless result sliceable, and a breadcrumb crust to give the finished dish the appearance and crispness of something grander. The same sequence appears in period recipes for pig's ears, calf's head and tripe, and French cookery calls the crumbed-and-grilled finish ould. It is a technique built around a kitchen that expected to use the whole animal and had cold larder space to let things set overnight.