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Barbecued Lamb
Cut cold roast lamb in thin slices and reheat in sauce made by melting two tablespoons butter, adding threefourths tablespoon vinegar, one-fourth cup currant jelly, one-fourth teaspoon French mustard, and salt and cayenne to taste.
Rechauffé of Lamb Brown two tablespoons butter, add two and one-half tablespoons flour, and stir until well browned; then add one-fourth teaspoon, each, curry powder, mustard, and salt, and one-eighth teaspoon paprika. Add, gradually, one cup brown stock and two tablespoons sherry wine. Reheat cold roast lamb cut in thin slices in sauce.
Two ways to use up cold roast lamb, both built on the same principle: warm the meat through in a finished sauce rather than cooking it a second time. The instructions are compressed, so a few points are worth spelling out.
- The hinge: never let the sauce simmer with the lamb in itAlready-roasted lamb sliced thin needs only two or three minutes in hot sauce off a hard boil. Let it bubble and the slices tighten, dry out and turn grey.
- Slice cold, serve hotCold roast lamb carves into clean thin slices; warm lamb tears. Carve straight from the refrigerator, then bring the slices to room temperature briefly before they go into the pan so the sauce is not chilled.
- "French mustard"In this period the term generally meant a smooth prepared mustard of the Dijon type, rather than dry powder or the bright yellow American style. The second sauce simply calls for "mustard," measured by the quarter-teaspoon alongside the curry powder, salt and paprika, which suggests powdered mustard there.
- Currant jellyRed currant jelly, the standard accompaniment to lamb and mutton in Anglo-American cooking. Redcurrant jelly from a supermarket works exactly as intended; grape or apple jelly is sweeter and will need more vinegar to balance.
- Brown stockFarmer's brown stock is made from browned beef bones and vegetables. Any good unsalted beef or veal stock stands in; if using a commercial stock, hold the quarter-teaspoon of salt until you have tasted the finished sauce.
- Browning the rouxMelt the butter, stir in the flour and keep it moving over medium heat until it takes on the colour of peanut butter — three to five minutes. Add the stock gradually off the heat to avoid lumps, then return it to the heat to thicken.
- Quantities and yieldThe second sauce makes a little over a cup; the first is much smaller, nearer half that, and glazes rather than coats. The first is a thin, sharp glaze; the second is a proper gravy.
- ServingDishes of this kind were commonly served at luncheon or supper: over toast, rice, or plain boiled potatoes.
Réchauffé is simply French for "reheated," and its presence as a formal recipe heading tells you a good deal about how a turn-of-the-century American household ate. A large roast on Sunday was expected to reappear for two or three meals, and cookery writers of Fannie Farmer's generation treated the dignified handling of cold meat as a test of skill rather than an admission of thrift. The "barbecued" sauce here has nothing to do with smoke or open fire, and this one, with its currant jelly, vinegar and cayenne, sits squarely in the older English tradition of serving lamb with a tart fruit jelly. The second sauce, curried and finished with sherry, reflects the presence of Anglo-Indian seasoning in Boston kitchens.