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Hot Pot (An English dish)
Take two pounds of the neck of a lamb, cut up the meat, take out all the bones. Butter a deep baking dish. Line the bottom and sides with thin slices of potato. Quarter the lamb kidneys and put in the dish, then add the meat, season with salt, pepper, a little finely chopped mint and a few drops of onion juice. Cover the top with sliced potatoes, pour over half a pint of stock, cover the dish and set in a moderate oven to bake for an hour and a half. Serve very hot.
A straightforward layered braise that needs little translation, though a few of its quantities are left to the cook's judgment.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 350F. At that temperature an hour and a half will just about tenderize cubed neck meat; if the pieces are large, allow closer to two hours and test with a fork before serving.
- Half a pint of stockOne cup. That is enough to steam the potatoes and keep the meat moist under a lid, not to submerge anything — this is a covered bake, not a stew.
- Neck of lambTwo pounds bone-in neck yields roughly a pound to a pound and a quarter of usable meat once boned. Butchers rarely display it now; order it, or use boneless shoulder, which has similar fat and collagen and behaves much the same way.
- The kidneysNo number is given. Two or three lamb kidneys suit two pounds of meat. Trim the white core and the surrounding fat, and soak them briefly in cold water if their smell is strong.
- Onion juiceA Victorian and Edwardian shortcut for onion flavor without visible pieces: grate a peeled onion on a fine grater and press the pulp through a sieve. A few drops means a few drops — it is assertive.
- Slicing the potatoesAbout an eighth of an inch, mandoline or steady knife. Much thicker slices may still be firm at the end of the bake; the lining slices in particular want to be thin enough to soften into the meat juices.
- Browning the topThe dish bakes covered throughout as written, which leaves the top layer pale and steamed. Lifting the lid for the last twenty to thirty minutes, with a little butter brushed over the potatoes, gives the crisp browned crust that hot pot is usually judged on.
- YieldServes four as a main course. It reheats well, and the potato lining sets firmer overnight.
Hot pot is traditionally said to take its name from the tall covered pot as much as from the food in it -- a lidded earthenware or iron vessel that let cheap meat and a layer of potatoes cook slowly with almost no attention. The dish is associated with the north of England and most often attached to Lancashire. American cookbooks of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did collect such dishes under headings like "An English dish," though how far that reflected fashion rather than plain instruction is not something the recipe can tell us. The kidneys are an English signature here; the onion juice is period technique, from a time when some cookery writers advised against visible onion in a made dish.