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Ragout of Lamb, Parisienne
Cut into two-inch-square pieces one and a half pounds of neck and one and a half pounds breast of lamb. Heat two tablespoons lard in a braising pan, add the meat. Season with two teaspoons salt and half teaspoon pepper and lightly brown twenty minutes, frequently turning the pieces once in a while. Remove all fat from pan, sprinkle over two tablespoons flour, stir well, then moisten with one and a half pints water and a pint pure tomato juice. Mix well, let come to a boil. Add twelve small white onions, previously browned in a little butter, and twelve small new potatoes, peeled. Tie in a bunch two branches parsley, two branches chervil, six branches chives, a sprig thyme, one bay leaf, one clove and one bean garlic and add to pan, place lid on and boil five minutes, then set in oven twenty-five minutes. Add then half pint shelled peas and twelve canned mushrooms, lightly shuffle pan and reset in oven forty-five minutes longer. Remove, take up bouquet, skim fat from surface of the ragout. Dress on a deep dish, sprinkle a little parsley over and serve.
A classic French lamb braise written for a coal range, so the oven temperature is left unsaid and the vegetables all go in earlier than modern cooks would put them. A few adjustments bring it into line.
- Oven temperatureNo number is given; a moderate oven, roughly 325-350F, suits the dish. The liquid should barely tremble, not boil, for the seventy minutes it spends inside.
- The cutsNeck and breast are bony, fatty, gelatinous cuts, which is exactly why the dish works. Breast is still cheap; if neck is unavailable, ask for shoulder on the bone rather than boneless leg, which turns dry and stringy in a braise.
- "One bean garlic"A single clove; "bean" is most likely a literal rendering of the French gousse d'ail. It goes into the herb bundle whole and comes out with it.
- The bouquetTie it in cheesecloth or with kitchen string so the clove and bay leaf can be fished out intact. Chervil is the one hard-to-find item; fresh tarragon in half quantity is the nearest substitute, or leave it out and add extra parsley.
- Vegetable timingSmall new potatoes need about 25-30 minutes, not seventy, and shelled peas need five to eight. Hold the potatoes back until the last half hour and stir the peas in for the final ten minutes if you want them green rather than khaki.
- MushroomsCanned button mushrooms were a common pantry item when this was written and give a soft, slightly briny result. Fresh browned buttons added in the last twenty minutes are better if you are not chasing the period flavour.
- SkimmingBreast of lamb throws a great deal of fat. Skimming before serving matters, and the ragout is easier to degrease if you chill it overnight and lift the cap off solid.
- Fat and liquidTwo tablespoons lard can be oil or butter; a pint here is 2 cups, so the pan takes 3 cups water and 2 cups tomato juice, enough to nearly cover the meat.
- YieldThree pounds of bone-in lamb with potatoes and peas serves four to six as a main course, in deep plates with bread.
This is a navarin printanier under a dressier name: the standard French spring lamb stew, built on browned neck and breast, a flour-thickened braising liquid, glazed baby onions, new potatoes and peas. "Parisienne" in turn-of-the-century cookbooks rarely denotes anything precise; it signals a restrained, restaurant-style treatment rather than a regional one, and here it mostly flags the tidy garnish of uniform small vegetables. The word ragout comes from the French ragoûter, to revive the appetite, and the technique -- brown, singer with flour, moisten, braise -- is the same one taught in professional kitchens then and now. The use of canned mushrooms and pure tomato juice shows how quickly American households adapted such a dish to what the grocer stocked.