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Roast Leg of Lamb
Trim and wipe meat with damp cloth. Rub first with melted shortening, then with plenty of salt and pepper. Place in roasting pan in very hot oven and sear for 20 minutes. Reduce heat of oven to 40 degrees, and roast until tender. Do not add water to the roasting pan, but cover it if it browns too fast.
A straightforward two-stage roast: high heat to set a crust, then lower heat to cook through. The original leaves the finishing temperature and total time to the cook's judgement, so the numbers below fill that gap.
- Oven temperatures"Very hot" in books of this period is generally taken as about 450-475F. The printed instruction to "reduce heat of oven to 40 degrees" is garbled, most likely a misprint for 400; a moderate 325-350F for the remainder is a safe modern reading, but it is our substitution, not the book's figure.
- Timing by weightA bone-in leg of 5-7 lb needs roughly 15-18 minutes per pound at 325F after searing. Judge by thermometer rather than clock: 130-135F at the thickest point, away from the bone, for pink lamb; 145F for medium.
- Rest before carvingLet the leg stand 15-20 minutes under loose foil. The internal temperature will climb several degrees and the juices redistribute, which matters more on a large leg than on a small roast.
- "Shortening" hereIn this era that means lard or a solid vegetable fat, used simply to carry salt and pepper and help browning. Olive oil or softened butter does the same job.
- No water in the panThis is the instruction that matters. Water turns the oven into a steam box and the surface will never crisp. If the drippings threaten to scorch, raise the meat on a rack rather than adding liquid.
- CoveringThe book says simply to cover the pan if it browns too fast. A loose foil tent does the job; a fully sealed cover steams the joint. Greased paper was also used for this purpose in period roasting, though this recipe does not mention it.
- Seasoning depth"Plenty of salt and pepper" is meant literally on a joint this size. Season the day before if you can, uncovered in the refrigerator, which also dries the surface for better browning.
- YieldA 6 lb bone-in leg serves 6 to 8 as a main course, with enough left for cold slices.
Roast leg of lamb was a standard Sunday and company joint in American and British households alike, and a joint of this kind was meant to be brought whole to the table and carved.