LAMB.
To select.—The flesh must be like that of mutton, rather black, and the fat white.
There is no difference in the wether and ewe. The shorter the quarters are the better the meat, and the fore as well as the hind quarter. With the exception that the breast-piece is prepared also in épigramme, and that it is cut in quarters instead of dividing it like mutton, lamb may be prepared in the same and every way like mutton. The quarters may be prepared like shoulder, leg, and saddle of mutton.
Chops may be cut and prepared the same as mutton-chops.
Fore-Quarter.—According to the opinion of a great many epicures, the fore-quarter is the best part of the lamb; but, as we have previously said, every one to his liking.
Lard it slightly, and envelop it with buttered paper, place it upon the spit before a good fire; when done take from the fire, and take the paper off, sprinkle on it salt, pepper, and chopped parsley; put back on the spit before a sharp fire, just long enough to allow it to take a fine color; then take off, run a knife under the shoulder to make a small hole, pour maître d'hôtel sauce in it, and serve either as it is, with its gravy, or on a purée of sorrel.
To bake it.—Put it in a baking-pan, spread a little salt, pepper, and butter over it; cover it with a piece of buttered paper; have the bottom of the pan covered with cold water and put in a warm oven, baste often till done. If the paper burns, put on another piece. Run a small knife or a skewer into the meat, to ascertain when properly done.
It may be served with the gravy only, after having removed the fat, or with a piquante, poivrade, or maître d'hôtel sauce.
It is also served with a garniture of mushrooms or onions, or with a macédoine, or on a purée of spinach, or of sorrel.
Hind-Quarter.—Throw it in boiling water for five minutes, and drain. Put in a stewpan a piece of butter the size of an egg, and set on the fire; when melted, mix in it a tablespoonful of flour; after which, pour in, little by little, a pint and a half of boiling water, stirring with a wooden spoon all the time; then put the meat in the pan, add four onions, a bay-leaf, two cloves, three sprigs of parsley, two of thyme, salt, and pepper; about fifteen minutes before it is done, add two or three mushrooms cut in slices, take from the fire when cooked, place the meat on a dish with the mushrooms and onions around, or if preferred, without either; strain the sauce on the meat, and serve.
If the sauce is not thick enough, mix the yolk of an egg in it just before serving.
Roasted.—Roast and serve the hind-quarter in the same way as directed for the fore-quarter.
Baked.—Bake and serve it also in the same and every way like the fore-quarter.
Epigramme.—Put a breast of lamb in a saucepan, cover it with cold water, season with a small onion and one clove stuck in it, two stalks of parsley, a piece of carrot, one of turnip, and salt. Boil gently till you can pull off the bones easily. It may also be boiled in the soup-kettle while making broth. When the bones come off easily, take from the fire, pull out all the small bones and cut out the large one. Place the breast in a large bakepan, with some weight over so as to flatten it, and leave it so till perfectly cold. Then cut it in pieces of rhombic shape about four inches long and two inches broad; salt and pepper each piece on both sides; dip them in beaten egg, roll in bread-crumbs and fry them with a little butter, and serve on a tomato, piquante, ravigote, or soubise sauce, or on any purée.
When the sauce is spread on the dish, place the pieces of lamb all around it, one lapping over the other, and forming a kind of oblong string, and serve warm.
Another.—When the épigramme is prepared as above and ready to be served, have as many mutton-chops as you have pieces of meat from the breast; dish in the same way, except that you put one piece of the breast and then a mutton-chop fried in the same way as the pieces of meat; the chops lapping over the pieces of breast, and vice versa.
Broiled.—The same may be broiled instead of fried, and served in the same way.
Roasted entire.—Skewer a lamb properly on the spit, envelop it with buttered paper, place before a good fire, baste often with melted butter first, and then with the drippings; when nearly done take the paper off, let the lamb take a fine color around, and serve it with the gravy. It may be served with a garniture around and decorated with skewers, the same as directed for fillet of beef; it then makes a sightly as well as a delicious dish.
Served with a garniture and decorated as directed for a fillet of beef, it is served as a relevé at a grand dinner, and as an entrée at a family dinner.
Cold.—Cold lamb is served in every way like cold mutton. A part left from a roasted piece may be enveloped in buttered paper, put on the spit just long enough to warm it, and served just in the same way as roast lamb.
Lamb's head, feet, kidneys, etc., are prepared and served like the same parts of the sheep, and as directed in the different receipts.