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To Grill a Shoulder of Lamb
Half boil it, score and cover it with egg, crumbs, and parsley seasoned as for cutlets. Broil it over a very clear, slow fire, or put it in a Dutch oven to brown it; serve with any sauce that is liked. A breast of lamb is often grilled in the same way.
A two-stage method: the shoulder is parboiled until nearly done, then crumbed and browned. The whole point is the crust, so the meat must be dry and cool enough to hold the coating before it goes near the fire.
- "Half boil it"Simmer the shoulder in salted water until about half cooked (for a bone-in shoulder of 4-5 lb, roughly 45 minutes at a bare simmer), then lift it out and let it cool and dry on a rack. Coating hot, wet meat only makes the crumbs slide off. Keep the cooking liquid; it makes a useful base for the sauce.
- "Seasoned as for cutlets"I.e. the crumbs mixed with chopped parsley, salt and pepper; period cutlet mixtures sometimes also carry a little grated lemon peel or mace, though this recipe does not say so. Brush the scored meat with beaten egg, then press the seasoned crumbs on firmly.
- ScoringThe recipe gives no detail: shallow diagonal cuts in the fat, an inch or so apart, are enough. They give the egg and crumbs something to hold to and let the fat render as it browns.
- "A Dutch oven"In this period the term often meant the open-faced tin reflector that stood before the hearth rather than the lidded cast-iron pot, and the reflector is what suits the job here. In a modern kitchen, brown it in a hot oven on a rack over a shallow pan.
- The fire"Very clear, slow fire" means glowing coals with no flame and no smoke, set low. Under a domestic broiler, use a lower rack and moderate heat: the crumbs colour long before the interior warms through, and a fierce fire will blacken them.
- Time and donenessFifteen to twenty-five minutes is usually enough to brown the crust and finish the meat. Shoulder is best taken to about 145F for pink or 160F if your household prefers it cooked through; the parboiling has already done most of the work.
- Breast of lambThe breast is much thinner and fattier. It needs the same parboiling but only eight to twelve minutes of browning, and it is easier to handle if pressed flat under a weight while it cools.
- Sauce and yield"Any sauce that is liked" leaves it open; caper or parsley sauce, or a sharp mint vinegar, all suit a crumbed shoulder. A shoulder of the size suggested above will serve five or six.
Grill here carries its older sense, closer to broil: to finish an already cooked or half-cooked joint over clear coals until the surface browns and crisps. The egg-and-crumb treatment is a familiar English way of dressing meat before browning, and it is often said to have reached Southern household cookery by way of the English books that Virginia housekeepers worked from. Marion Cabell Tyree's Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879) collected contributions from some 250 women, and short entries like this one assume a reader who already knows what "seasoned as for cutlets" means and needs only the outline. The reflector oven the recipe offers as an alternative was a common piece of hearth equipment: a hinged tin box, open on one side, that stood facing the fire and threw the heat back onto the joint, so that a household without a coal range could still brown a crust.