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Lamb, Loin of, Braised
Take a loin of lamb, skewer down the flap, and cover it all over with slices of fat bacon. Put it into a braising-pan, or, failing this, a saucepan, a nearly as possible its own size, with a closely-fitting lid, and pour over it a pint of good stock. Add half a dozen young carrots, a bunch of young onions, a blade of mace, two bunches of parsley, one bunch of thyme, a tea-spoonful of salt, and three or four peppercorns. Simmer very gently until the meat is done enough. Take it out, drain and dry it, reduce the sauce to a glaze, and brush this over the meat. Serve the lamb on a hot dish, and with it some green peas, spinach, or asparagus. Time, two hours. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A straightforward braise, but the success of it rests on the vessel and on what you do with the liquid at the end. Two details in the original are worth translating before you start.
- The pan is the recipeA pan "as nearly as possible its own size" is not fussiness: in a wide pan a pint of stock will not come up the sides of the loin and the top will steam-dry rather than braise. Use a lidded casserole or braiser that the loin just fits, or cut the loin in half to fit one.
- Buy the right cutA whole loin of lamb on the bone, with the flap (belly) still attached, is a butcher's order now. Expect 3-4 lb bone-in for four or five people. A boned and rolled loin also works, but reduce the time to about 1 hour 15 minutes.
- "Skewer down the flap"Fold the thin belly flap under the loin and secure it with a metal skewer or butcher's twine so the joint holds a compact shape and the eye of the meat cooks evenly.
- Fat baconUsed here as barding: fat streaky bacon or sheets of fatback laid over the joint, less for flavour than to keep the exposed surface from drying. Heavily smoked, thin-cut modern bacon will dominate the dish; fatback or pancetta in sheets is closer to what is wanted.
- Two hours is for a soft, spoonable jointModern practice for lamb loin is medium, around 145F internal, which a gentle braise reaches long before two hours. Cook the full time if you want the old-fashioned falling-apart texture; check with a thermometer at 75 minutes if you want it pink.
- "Simmer very gently"The liquid should barely tremble, at roughly 180-190F. A rolling boil squeezes the loin tight and clouds the stock you are about to reduce.
- A blade of maceOne piece of the dried outer casing (aril) of nutmeg, equivalent to roughly a quarter to half a teaspoon of ground mace. Add it whole so you can fish it out; ground mace will not strain cleanly from the glaze.
- Reducing to a glazeStrain the cooking liquid, skim the fat, then boil hard until it is syrupy and coats a spoon, perhaps a scant quarter cup from a pint. Salt only at this stage, since reduction concentrates the teaspoon already added.
- ServingRest the joint 10 minutes before brushing on the glaze, then carve down between the bones into chops. The braising carrots and onions can be served alongside if you wish, though the recipe itself calls only for the green vegetables.
Braising was, for Victorian cookery writers, the technique that redeemed cuts too lean or too tough to roast well: the loin is barded, sealed in a snug pot with aromatic stock, and the liquid is then reduced to a glaze rather than thrown away. The word braise comes from the French braise, meaning hot coals or embers; the braisi\a recessed lid meant to hold hot coals so that heat came from above as well as below -- takes its name from that, which may be why the book bothers to note that an ordinary saucepan with a tight lid will do instead. The "probable cost, 1s. per pound" is characteristic of Cassell's, which was written for households running to a budget and quoted prices throughout so a cook could reckon the expense of a dinner in advance. The insistence on young carrots and young onions points to spring, the natural season for lamb, and the suggested accompaniments of peas, spinach and asparagus fit that.