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Breaded Breast of Lamb
Place the meat in a kettle with water to cover salt, pepper and 1 slice of onion, cover and simmer very gently until the bones can be slipped out. When this has been done put the meat under light pressure and set away over night. Cut in strips or leave whole. Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with fine dry bread crumbs and broil over a clear fire; flour may be used instead of crumbs.
Shoulder of Lamb, Stuffed Have the shoulder boned. Make a stuffing with stale bread, salt, pepper, any sweet herbs, a little grated onion, a grating of lemon peel and melted dripping to moisten. Fill and skewer.
Pour 1 cupful of water in the pan, add 1 tablespoonful of tomato catsup. Roast in a moderate oven, basting with the pan gravy.
Two recipes have run together here through a dropped heading: the breaded breast, and a stuffed shoulder. Both hinge on boning a cheap, fatty cut and giving it a second cooking.
- The cutBreast of lamb is the thin, rib-end flap below the shoulder, sold as lamb breast or riblets and often needing an order from a butcher. Figure on 2-3 lb of bone-in breast to serve three or four, since much of the weight is bone and rendered fat.
- "Kettle" means a potIn this period a kettle is any large lidded cooking pot, not a tea kettle. A Dutch oven or stockpot is what is wanted.
- How long to simmerBones slip free after about 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a bare simmer. Hard boiling here only tightens the muscle and clouds the broth, which is worth saving as a base for the shoulder gravy.
- PressingLay the boned meat flat between two plates or in a small pan, weight it with a couple of tins, and chill. "Light pressure" means enough to compact the layers into a sliceable block, not enough to squeeze out the juices.
- Set away overnight means refrigerateThe original assumes a cold larder. Cooked meat should go into the refrigerator within two hours; do not leave it pressed on the counter overnight.
- Broiling over a clear fireA clear fire is coals burned down past flame and smoke. Under a modern broiler, put the crumbed strips 3-4 inches from the element and turn once, 3-4 minutes a side, until browned. The meat is already cooked through, so this step is colour and crust only.
- Dripping and stuffingDripping is saved beef or lamb fat; melted butter works and gives a milder stuffing. "Any sweet herbs" in a book of this date means thyme, marjoram, savoury or parsley rather than anything sugared.
- Oven for the shoulderA moderate oven is usually reckoned at 350-375F. A boned, stuffed and skewered shoulder of 3-4 lb takes roughly 25 minutes per pound; take the meat to an internal 145F and rest 15 minutes, longer if you prefer it well done, but check that the stuffing itself has reached 165F. Top up the pan with water if it threatens to dry out.
- The catsupA tablespoon of tomato catsup in the pan is there for colour and a sweet-sour edge in the gravy. Home and period catsups were often thinner and sharper than the modern bottle, so a splash of vinegar alongside it may bring the balance closer.
Breast of lamb is the classic thrift cut: fatty, bony, cheap, and nearly unsellable unless a cook knows what to do with it. The method here, simmer, bone, press under weight, chill, then crumb and grill, is the same treatment French kitchens gave to épigrammes d'agneau, and it survives in this American low-cost collection stripped of its name and its fancy sauce. Pressing served a practical purpose in a household without much refrigeration: it firmed the gelatinous meat into a block that sliced cleanly. The stuffed shoulder that follows works the same principle on another awkward cut, boning it so that stale bread could be made to stretch the meat further.