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Lamb in Ambush
Mince the lamb very fine. To each cup of meat allow one teaspoonful of chopped capers, one-half teaspoonful of onion-juice, one-quarter teaspoonful of salt, and a little paprika. Moisten with four tablespoonfuls of gravy or stock. Butter a deep pan or mold. Line the bottom and sides one inch deep with warm, well - seasoned mashed potato.
Fill the center with the meat mixture, and spread potato over the top. Cover tightly and steam, or set in pan of water and cook in oven from one-half to three-quarters of an hour. Turn out carefully on a hot platter, and serve tomato sauce (see page 71) in a separate dish. This dish is often called Lamb Chartreuse.
A shepherd's pie built as a sealed potato case rather than an open casserole, cooked gently in a water bath so the crust sets without browning. The instructions are sound; only a few details need translating.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given because the mold sits in a pan of water, which caps the interior near boiling. A moderate oven, in the region of 350F, is a reasonable modern reading for the stated 30 to 45 minutes, and it is consistent with the steaming alternative offered.
- Onion juiceA period shortcut for onion flavour without texture: grate a peeled onion on the fine side of a box grater and use the liquid that collects, or press grated pulp through a sieve. Half a teaspoon per cup of meat is a light touch, not a substitute for cooked onion.
- Mince very fineThis is the hinge. Cold roast lamb chopped coarsely will not bind, and the loaf collapses when turned out. Chop by hand to a fine, even mince or pulse briefly in a food processor, stopping well short of paste.
- The potato liningIt must be stiff and warm to be spread an inch thick against the sides of the mold. Mash made with butter and very little milk holds its wall; a loose, creamy mash slumps into the filling.
- Moistening the meatFour tablespoons of gravy or stock per cup of mince gives a filling that is damp but not wet. Excess liquid steams out into the potato and makes the unmolding uncertain.
- Cover tightlyButtered parchment under foil, or a fitted lid, keeps condensation off the top crust. Without it the surface takes on water and tears when inverted.
- Turning outLet the mold stand five minutes off the heat before inverting; the potato firms as it cools slightly. Run a thin knife around the edge first.
The alternative name given at the end is the more revealing one. A chartreuse in classical French cookery was an elaborate molded dish, originally of vegetables arranged in patterns around a filling, and the name is generally traced to the Carthusian monks and their meatless table, though the grand nineteenth-century versions were anything but abstemious. By the time this book was written, the term had been thoroughly domesticated: the decorative vegetable casing became a lining of mashed potato, and the filling became yesterday's roast. "Lamb in Ambush" is the same idea rendered in plain English for an American household, the meat concealed inside its potato wall. Capers with lamb is an old pairing in English cookery, where caper sauce was the standard accompaniment to boiled mutton, and their sharpness here does the work of cutting the richness of the reheated meat.