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Ballotin of Lamb with Green Peas
Bone a 3-pound shoulder of lamb--the end bone may be left for a handle. Season with a teaspoonful each of salt and pepper; sew up and fasten securely with string, and boil in stock pot for five minutes. Let it cool, and grease the top with a larding-needle. Put it in a saucepan with a small, thin strip of fat pork, and a chopped potato, beet, and onion. Cook eight or ten minutes, till lightly browned; then turn over a pint of broth and Spanish sauce in equal parts and cook in the oven about forty-five minutes. Then strain the sauce over a pint of boiled green peas, and cook for two or three minutes more. Take the strings from the ballotin; place it on top of the vegetable garnishing on a hot dish, and serve.
A hotel-kitchen preparation written for cooks who already knew what a ballotine and a Spanish sauce were. Most of the work is in the boning and tying; the cooking is straightforward once you fill in the temperatures the original leaves out.
- The hinge: tie it tightlyA ballotine is only as good as its binding. Roll the boned shoulder firmly, sew the long seam, then tie crosswise every inch or so with butcher's twine. A slack roll falls apart when the strings come off at the table.
- The five-minute boilDropping the tied roll into the stock pot briefly sets the outside and firms the shape before browning. It is not cooking the meat, so do not extend it.
- "Grease the top with a larding-needle"This means larding, not greasing: thread strips of fat salt pork through the surface of the lean meat with a larding needle. Modern lamb shoulder is fatty enough that you can skip this and simply lay the strip of pork fat over the top.
- Spanish sauceSauce espagnole, the brown mother sauce built on browned mirepoix, tomato and brown roux thinned with brown stock. A good jarred or homemade demi-glace, loosened with stock to sauce consistency, stands in for it.
- The vegetable baseThe chopped potato, beet and onion are aromatics for the braise, not a side dish, and the sauce is strained off them at the end. Be aware the beet will tint the sauce reddish-brown; leave it out if that bothers you.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, and the recipe does not say whether the pan is covered. A moderate oven, around 325-350F, suits a braise of this kind. Forty-five minutes is short for a 3-pound boned roll, so judge doneness with a thermometer rather than the clock; braised shoulder is better taken to 160F or a little beyond.
- SeasoningA full teaspoon of pepper on 3 pounds of meat is assertive by current taste. Half that is plenty unless you want a peppery crust.
- Peas at the endThe peas are already boiled; the two or three minutes in the strained sauce is only to heat and glaze them. Longer and they grey out.
- YieldA 3-pound shoulder, boned, serves four to six. Rest the roll ten minutes before removing the strings and slicing crosswise.