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Lamb, Shoulder Of
Put a shoulder of lamb down to a clear fire, and baste it liberally while roasting. A quarter of an hour before it is taken up dredge a little flour over it, sprinkle a tea-spoonful of salt upon it, and baste it with a little butter until it is nicely browned. Send in the dish with it a spoonful or two of the gravy made from the joint, and the rest in a tureen. Mint sauce and green peas, salad, or potatoes generally accompany this dish. Time to roast, eighteen minutes for every pound. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A spit-roasting instruction adapted easily to an oven, though the timing assumes a joint cooked through in front of open flame. Shoulder is a hard-working cut, and modern practice pulls in two directions: fast and pink, or long and slow until it pulls apart.
- "A clear fire"The original assumes a spit before a bright, flame-free bed of coals, with a dripping pan below for basting. In an oven, roast at 375F on a rack over a tray; radiant heat from the fire is replaced by circulating air, so browning is slower and basting matters less than it did.
- The timingEighteen minutes per pound at the roasting fire gives thoroughly cooked meat. In a 375F oven, 20 minutes per pound plus 20 minutes is a fair guide, but cook to temperature rather than clock: 130-135F at the thickest point for pink, 145F for medium, 160F and above for the well-done result the book intends. Rest 15-20 minutes before carving.
- The slow alternativeShoulder carries far more connective tissue than leg. Covered and cooked at 300F for four to five hours it goes soft enough to serve with a spoon, a common modern treatment of the cut. That is a different dish from the one described here, but the same joint.
- Dredging and frothingThe flour-and-butter finish in the last quarter hour is the old "frothing" trick: the flour absorbs fat and crisps into a thin browned crust. It works in an oven if you raise the heat to 425F for the final ten minutes after dredging. Watch it, since flour scorches quickly.
- The gravySkim the fat from the pan, deglaze with stock or the pea water, and reduce. There is no thickening instructed, and none is wanted; this is a thin pan gravy, not a sauce.
- Mint sauceNot mint jelly. The English accompaniment is chopped mint steeped in vinegar with a little sugar, made an hour ahead so the vinegar draws the flavour out.
- Cost and yieldThe book quotes one shilling per pound. A shoulder of 4-5 lb feeds four or five as written; bone-in weight includes a good deal of blade and shank.
Shoulder was the cut a careful household bought when leg was beyond reach: fattier, harder to carve, and correspondingly cheaper. The instruction to roast it before a clear fire rather than in the oven reflects a kitchen still in transition in the later nineteenth century, when many houses had a closed range but cooks held that true roasting meant radiant heat and a turning spit, with oven cookery dismissed as baking. Mint sauce with lamb is an English pairing of long standing, generally traced to the tradition of sharp, vinegar-based sauces served with rich meats; by the time this dictionary appeared it was fixed enough that the book can simply name it without explanation. Green peas alongside mark the dish as spring or early summer eating, when both lamb and peas were at their best and neither yet arrived year-round.