Home › The World's Kitchen › Lamb Club Sandwiches
Lamb Club Sandwiches
Cut six thin slices lamb from leg and season all over with a half teaspoon salt and two saltspoons pepper. Thoroughly heat a tablespoon melted butter in frying pan, add slices one beside another and cook for two minutes on each side. Remove and proceed to finish exactly the same as chicken club.
A three-line variation that leans entirely on the chicken club recipe printed nearby, so the assembly has to be reconstructed. Everything that matters here is in the thickness of the lamb and the speed of the cooking.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so two saltspoons is half a teaspoon of pepper against half a teaspoon of salt. That is a heavily peppered seasoning by modern habit; a quarter teaspoon of pepper suits most palates.
- How thin is thinThe recipe gives no thickness, only 'thin' and two minutes a side, which suggests slices in the region of an eighth to a quarter inch, cut across the grain from a raw leg. Anything approaching a chop will still be raw in the middle at that timing, and anything much thinner will be grey and dry.
- Cold roast lamb works betterIf you are using leftover roast lamb -- The recipe as written cooks raw slices. Cold roast lamb can be substituted, in which case the pan step is really just a warm-through: thirty to forty seconds a side in the butter, no more.
- What "finish exactly the same as chicken club" meansThe instruction sends you to the chicken club recipe printed nearby, which has to be consulted for the assembly. A club of this period generally means toast, bacon, lettuce and tomato with mayonnaise, cut into quarters; whether Filippini's version is a two-slice or three-slice construction can only be settled from that recipe.
- Butter quantityOne tablespoon is enough for a single layer in a heavy pan but will burn if the pan is genuinely hot. Use a medium-high heat and add the slices as soon as the foam subsides.
- YieldSix slices of lamb make three sandwiches at two slices each, or two generous ones. Cut into quarters, that is a plate for two people at lunch.
- Seasoning the sandwich, not the meatLamb takes salt well but the bacon in a club is already salty. Season the lamb lightly if you are also using bacon, and let the pepper carry the flavour.
The club sandwich was a fixture of American hotel and club dining rooms by the 1890s, and its name is often traced to the private social clubs where it was served late, after the kitchen proper had closed -- though other explanations circulate and none is settled. Alexander Filippini, who had cooked at Delmonico's, was writing for households that expected restaurant range at home. It is worth noting that this entry cooks raw lamb rather than reheating a roast, so it is a variation on the club rather than a leftovers dish.