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Crown of Lamb with Peas
In cooking lamb care must be taken that it is made thoroughly done. With the length of the ribs on both sides a crown roast may be prepared which is very effective in appearance. Stand the two pieces with the bone side outwards and draw them round together to a circle tying or skewering them. Cover the ends of the bones with greased paper or a flour and water paste so that they will not char, then roast in a quick oven.
In serving fill with peas.
A construction note more than a recipe: two racks of lamb bent into a ring, roasted, and filled at the table. The instructions assume you know how to butcher, so the useful additions are numbers.
- The cutYou need two whole racks of lamb, seven to eight ribs each, with the chine bone removed and the top inch or two of the rib bones scraped clean. Ask a butcher to french and score the racks; bending them into a circle is straightforward once the meat between the rib tips is cut through.
- "A quick oven"425-450F. A crown roast benefits from that heat because the exposed rib ends and the thin outer fat need to brown before the eye of the meat overcooks.
- Protecting the bonesThe flour-and-water paste works, but small caps of aluminium foil are simpler and come off cleanly. Whatever you use, keep it on for the whole roast; bare rib tips scorch quickly at this heat.
- "Thoroughly done" is the one line to ignoreCook to 130-135F at the thickest part of the eye for medium-rare, 140-145F for medium. Past 155F the loin dries out badly, and the eye of this cut is lean.
- TimingA two-rack crown of roughly 3-4 lb will take somewhere in the region of 25-40 minutes in a hot oven, but go by the thermometer, not the clock. Rest it 15 minutes before carving; the ring holds heat well.
- The peasFill the centre only at the moment of serving, and drain them thoroughly, or the pan juices and pea water pool under the roast. A knob of butter and a little mint is the period seasoning. Frozen peas, cooked three minutes, are better than anything the original author had access to out of season.
- YieldTwo racks of seven or eight ribs serve four to six people, allowing two or three chops each. Carve down between the ribs, straight through.
- TyingButcher's twine around the outside in two places, top and bottom, gives a steadier ring than skewers and does not have to be removed until carving.
The crown roast belongs to the late-Victorian and Edwardian taste for meat presented as architecture — the same impulse that produced boned birds stuffed inside one another and aspics moulded into towers. The crown was a way of making a joint look like a centrepiece, with the hollow middle filled by whatever vegetable was in season. The greased paper and flour paste described here had the practical job of keeping the bones from charring rather than any decorative one. The instruction to cook lamb thoroughly reflects a period in which butchery, refrigeration and the age of the animal were all uncertain.