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Lamb, Leg of, Boiled
Put a plump leg of lamb into as much boiling water as will barely cover it. Let it boil a few minutes, then add a little cold water; draw the pan to the side of the fire, remove the scum carefully as it rises, and afterwards simmer gently until done enough. A tea-spoonful of salt should be thrown into the water when the lamb is half cooked. Place the meat on a hot dish, garnish it with tufts of boiled cauliflower or carrots, and send caper sauce to table with it--a little poured over the joint, and the rest in a tureen. The loin may be cut into steaks, fried, and served round garnished with parsley. Time to boil, a quarter of an hour for each pound, counting from the time the water boils the second time. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A plainly written poaching method that still works, provided you keep the water below a true boil once the meat is in. The timing is the part most worth rethinking.
- Not actually boiledThe hinge is the splash of cold water and the pan drawn to the side of the fire: both drop the temperature so the leg poaches at a bare simmer, around 180-190F. A rolling boil squeezes the muscle fibres and gives you grey, stringy lamb.
- TimingFifteen minutes per pound plus the time to come back to temperature will take a 5 lb leg well past 165F throughout. If you want lamb pink at the centre, cook to an internal temperature of about 135-140F at the thickest point, away from the bone, and expect roughly 12 minutes per pound as a rough guide only.
- SaltA single teaspoon in a pot large enough to cover a leg of lamb is nominal seasoning. Salt the water properly from the start -- it will not toughen the meat -- and the cooking liquid becomes a usable broth.
- SkimmingThe scum is coagulated protein and it matters for appearance rather than flavour. Skim during the first ten minutes, when most of it rises, and the finished liquid stays clear enough to keep for soup.
- Caper sauceThe expected accompaniment is a béchamel or a butter-and-flour sauce loosened with some of the lamb liquor, finished with drained capers and a little of their vinegar. Made with the cooking water rather than plain milk it tastes of the joint.
- The loin noteThe suggestion to fry loin steaks and range them round the dish is a separate garnish using a separate cut; it is not part of the boiled leg. Skip it unless you are serving a large table.
- Cost and yieldOne shilling a pound is late-Victorian pricing and tells you only that lamb was a middling expense. Five or six servings is realistic for a leg of about 4-5 lb, bone in.
- RestingLift the leg out, let it stand ten minutes under foil before carving, and moisten the slices with a ladle of the hot liquor so they do not dry on the platter.
Boiling was the ordinary English treatment for a leg of mutton or lamb well into the nineteenth century, and it survived alongside roasting for practical reasons: a pot over the fire needed no spit, no basting and no constant attention, and it left a broth behind. Caper sauce is the fixed partner in the English repertoire -- capers, the pickled flower buds of Capparis spinosa, came in by the jar from the Mediterranean and their sharpness cuts the fat of the joint much as mint sauce does with roast lamb. The method itself is straightforward: cover with boiling water, check it with cold and hold the pot at a simmer.