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Tendrons of Lamb Braise with Vegetables
Cut three pounds breast of lamb into two-and-a-half-inch-square pieces. Place in a roasting pan six new carrots cut in halves, six small, peeled white onions, and twelve small, peeled, raw new potatoes. Arrange the lamb in the centre and the vegetables around. Season all over with one and a half teaspoons salt, a half teaspoon pepper, saltspoon grated nutmeg, half saltspoon ground thyme and half saltspoon mixed allspice. Lightly baste with melted butter, pour a half gill water in the pan, then set in the oven for thirty-five minutes, turning the lamb and vegetables once in a while. Pour in a half gill pure tomato juice, one and a half gills demi-glace and reset in the oven for thirty minutes more. Remove, dress on a hot dish, sprinkle a little freshly chopped parsley over and serve.
A straightforward oven braise from a professional kitchen, written for cooks who already had stock reduction on hand. Two things need translating: the measurements and the doneness.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup and one and a half gills is 3/4 cup. A saltspoon is 1/4 teaspoon; half a saltspoon is a pinch, about 1/8 teaspoon.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Treat this as a moderate oven, around 350F, for the whole cooking time; hotter and the small amount of liquid will scorch before the meat is tender.
- What tendrons areThe cartilaginous rib tips at the thin end of the breast, a butchery cut rather than a supermarket one. Ask for lamb breast on the bone and cut it across into squares as directed, or use riblets; the cartilage is the point of the dish and it turns gelatinous when cooked long enough.
- The timing is shortSixty-five minutes total will cook the vegetables but leaves lamb breast chewy and the cartilage still firm. Expect to give the meat closer to 1 1/2 to 2 hours, covered for most of it, and add the potatoes and carrots for the last 40 minutes so they do not collapse.
- Demi-glaceA reduced brown sauce built on veal stock, of the sort professional kitchens kept standing. Good store-bought demi-glace concentrate diluted to 3/4 cup works; a strong reduced beef or lamb stock is the honest substitute. Plain broth will leave the dish thin and watery.
- FatLamb breast is one of the fattiest cuts. Once the pan comes out, tip it and spoon off the fat before dressing the meat on the platter, or the sauce will be greasy rather than glossy.
- Mixed allspiceThis may mean a ground spice blend rather than allspice alone; the term is not consistent across books. Ground allspice on its own is fine at this quantity.
- YieldThree pounds of breast on the bone, with the vegetables, serves four.
Tendron is a French butcher's word for the gristly rib-tip end of the breast, and its appearance here, untranslated, points to a professionally trained hand: the reader is expected to know what demi-glace is and to have some standing by. The cut itself is a thrift cut given a restaurant finish, braised with new carrots, small onions and new potatoes so that the collagen and cartilage soften into the sauce. That combination of humble meat and a proper reduction is characteristic of hotel-style cookery, which took the cheap end of the carcass seriously as long as the sauce was correct.