Many peasant communities relied on sheep for meat and milk, as well as for wool, since the flocks could crop the poorest pastures which were not required for any more demanding agricultural use. While pork is the meat favoured by sedentary farmers, mutton and lamb were the more readily available to the nomadic peoples who shared their territories.
Mutton hams were salted for peasant larders in Scandinavia, Scotland, and Wales. Mutton specialities often take a wry look at the way of life which brought them into being: Jump-short Pie is allegedly made from the meat of those animals unable to clear the ravine; Braxy Collops–mutton chops from the flock’s casualties–needed to be soaked in water overnight and then wellsalted before they could be considered palatable. If the sheep was for the slaughter under the eye of the factor, the landlord got the meat and the shepherd took the head–mutton head, split and blanched and simmered with pot herbs and a handful of barley until the meat dropped off the bone, was a staple of many a highlander’s diet.
On high days and holidays, mutton came in grander guise. Harvest-home in the Cairngorms of central Scotland, an event recorded at the beginning of the last century by Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, featured mutton:
‘At the Dell … there was always broth, mutton broiled and roasted, fowls, muir-fowl (red grouse), three or four pair on a dish–apple-pie and rice pudding, such jugs upon jugs of cream, cheese, oatcakes and butter; thick bannocks of flour instead of wheaten bread … In the kitchen was all the remains of the sheep, more broth, haggis, head and feet singed, puddings black and white, a pile of oaten cakes, a kit of butter (a wooden pail), two whole cheeses, one tub of sowans, another of curd, whey and whisky in plenty.’
Lamb–young males–was the celebration meat of the Mediterranean’s pastoral communities at weddings and the all-important feast of Easter. In southern lands, where the season is more advanced, the Easter lamb is a tradition which goes back to the sacrificial lamb eaten at the Jewish Passover, arriving in Britain with the Christian message, though the Orthodox Christian communities of Eastern Europe consider the last of the winter’s ham the appropriate meat for the feast.
Mutton and lamb are the meat of choice among populations which lived and interbred with the Muslim communities of North Africa–particularly the Mediterranean’s island communities. When Eliza Putnam Heaton, a young American travelling in Sicily for her health in 1908, stopped for refreshment in a taverna–roofed, she recalled, with the flowering branches of oleander and walled with screens of split and plaited cane–she was expected to bring her own meat with her:
‘These tavernas are furnished with rough tables and benches, and the keepers sell little but the necessaries of life–wine, peasant bread, raw onions, garlic, Sicilian cheese; but it is understood that the patrons will for the most part bring roast sheep and will buy only bread and wine to complete the Homeric feast. How they eat meat, these Sicilians, when they do eat it, storing up flesh food for months when they do not see it!’
SLOW-COOKED LAMB WITH OREGANO
Arni ladorigani (Greece)
A simple technique which is more like steaming than stewing–the meat cooks gently in its own juices and takes colour at the end rather than as a result of preliminary frying. This dish can also be made with a variety of meats–liver, lights, heart, kidneys: chopped into bite-sized pieces, they will need no more than 30-40 minutes cooking. It’s also good made with rabbit–joint neatly and soak overnight in vinegar and water.
Quantity: Serves 4-6
Time: Preparation: 15-20 minutes
Cooking: 1½ hours
1.5kg/3 lb stewing lamb on the bone, (breast, neck or shoulder)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 lemons, juice and finely-pared zest
1 glass warm water
Salt and pepper
1-2 short sticks cinnamon
1 tablespoon chopped oregano and/or rosemary
Utensils: A heavy casserole with a lid
Chop the meat into bite-sized pieces and transfer to a casserole with the oil, lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper and cinnamon. Lid tightly and cook on a gentle heat on top of the stove for 30 minutes, or bake in the oven at 325°F/160°C/Gas 3.
At the end of that time, remove the lid–the meat will be exquisitely brown and sizzling–add a glass of warm water and the oregano, and stir to incorporate the juices. Lid tightly again. Cook for another hour. By the time the lamb is tender, the juices should have been absorbed, and only the oil and a little lemon-flavoured liquid remain.
Serve with plenty of bread, a plate of crisp-fried chips, a bowl of black Kalamata olives sprinkled with oregano, and a bottle of Greek white wine–not all the Greek wines are resinated. Choose a couple of scooping salads to start the meal.
SHEPHERD’S STEW WITH CREAM
Tokana (Romania)
A recipe from the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania, where shepherds move their thousand-strong flocks between their winter and summer pastures, protecting them against the wolf packs and bears which still patrol the upland forests. During the long treks, the men sleep beside the sheep and the dogs they use to herd them. In the evenings they will make a thick soup-stew over a blazing fire, its embers glowing all night to ward off the fierce cold. Wrapped like their charges in heavy fleeces, the hardy and stubbornly independent shepherds–their lean Mongolian cheek bones betraying their Slav ancestry–lack for little. Unlike the rest of modern Romania their larders are always well-stocked, and there is no shortage of meat in their pots whether simmering beneath the chill stars or in the warmth of their mountain homes.
Quantity: Enough for 4 shepherds after a long day, or 6 more delicate diners
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 1½ hours
1.5kg/3 lb lamb off the bone
500g/1 lb onions
Salt and black pepper
2-3 bay leaves
1.5kg/3 lb potatoes
To finish
2 tablespoons white brandy–Romanian tsuica, marc, vodka
4 tablespoons soured cream
1 tablespoon vinegar
Utensils: A heavy casserole
Cube the meat and trim off the fat (save it). Peel and slice the onions. Put the fat trimmings to render in a heavy casserole or saucepan. Take out the brown scraps and reserve, and add the meat and onions. Fry until well-browned. Add salt, pepper, and herbs and enough water to submerge the meat completely. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat. Lid and leave to simmer for an hour.
Peel and slice the potatoes and lay them on top of the stew, adding more boiling water if it looks a little dry. Lid and simmer for another 30 minutes. Take the lid off towards the end to allow the gravy to thicken by evaporation. When the potatoes are soft, remove the pot from the heat and sprinkle the surface with a couple of tablespoons of white brandy; set light to it immediately, burning off the alcohol while lightly caramelising the top. Stir in the soured cream and vinegar and sprinkle with the reserved brown scraps from the preliminary frying. Eat straight from the pot, scooping up the meat with chunks of country bread.
Suggestions:
• Paprika has crept into the recipe on the Hungarian side of the Transylvanian border. In lowland Romania, they add garlic and bacon. Among the Saxon communities the dish is made with beef and mushrooms flavoured with summer savory and red wine. In the German-speaking areas, it comes with mustard and beer.
LAMB WITH GREEN GARLIC
Kapama (Bulgaria)
The spring version of all-purpose Balkan stew includes fresh garlic: leek-like, pure white, with a very mild flavour. The autumn version includes wild mushrooms–cèpes or chanterelles, both of which grow in profusion in the Bulgarian woods in the autumn. Morel mushrooms could be added in the spring.
Quantity: Serves 4
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 1 hour
1kg/2 lb lamb off the bone (shoulder or neck fillets)
500g/1 lb fresh garlic with their leaves
Small bunch spring onions
100g/4 oz morel mushrooms (or any dried wild fungi)
Salt and pepper
Utensils: A medium-sized casserole with a lid
Trim off excess fat from the meat (reserve the trimmings) and chop into bite-sized pieces. Trim the garlic and spring onions and chop into short lengths, reserving the green tops–the chief beauty of this simple dish.
In a roomy casserole, gently fry the trimmings from the meat till the fat liquefies. Add the garlic, onions, meat and fry for a few minutes till everything browns a little. Add the morels and enough boiling water to cover. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat, lid loosely and stew gently on top of the stove or in a moderate oven, 325°F/160°C/Gas 3), for an hour at least, until the onions and garlic have melted into the sauce and the meat is soft. Taste and add more salt if you need it. Finish with the reserved green tops, chopped small. Serve in small earthenware bowls, one for each person, with black bread and boiled potatoes. Before the meal, hand round small glasses of slivova or vodka to clear the palate.
Suggestions:
• If you only have mature garlic available as for an autumn kapama, finish with a handful of fresh mint or dill fronds, finely chopped.
BAKED LAMB, VEGETABLES AND RICE
Djuvedj (Serbia)
If the six regions which made up what was once known as Yugoslavia would admit to a national dish, that dish is probably djuvedj–an all-purpose name for a meat-and-vegetable one-pot dish introduced to the Balkans by the army cooks of the Ottoman Turks. Croatians would probably use potatoes rather than rice, while Montenegrins prefer tubular pasta. Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia all have variations on the theme.
Quantity: Serves 4 hungry Ottoman Turks
Time: Preparation: 20-25 minutes
Cooking: 1½ hours
1kg/2 lb lamb off the bone
2 large red onions
3-4 garlic cloves
1.5kg/3 lb mixed vegetables: aubergines, courgettes, chard, carrots, peppers, green beans, pumpkin
150ml/¼ pint olive oil
500g/1 lb tomatoes (tinned is fine)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered chilli
125g/4 oz round (risotto) rice
Utensils: A frying pan and a shallow earthenware baking dish with a cover
Trim and cube the meat into bite-sized pieces. Skin and slice the onions and garlic. Hull, scrape and slice or chunk the vegetables as appropriate. Scald the tomatoes to loosen the skins, then peel and chop.
Warm half the olive oil in a frying pan. Put in the onions and garlic and fry them until they turn a pale gold, then push them to one side and add the meat. Fry gently for a moment and then season with salt and chilli. Transfer the meat and onion mixture with its oil to a wide shallow baking dish–earthenware is best. Cover the meat with a layer of the vegetables. Season again. Sprinkle in a layer of rice. Finish with a layer of the sliced tomatoes (and sprinkle on a little sugar if the tomatoes are the hothouse variety). Pour in enough boiling water to submerge to a depth of one finger. Trickle with the rest of the oil. Cover the dish, and put it to bake in a moderate oven, 350°F/180°C/Gas 4 for 1½ hours.
Take off the lid for the final 20 minutes. The kitchen will fill with the enticing scent, and the cooking liquid will be concentrated into a rich sauce. Bread to accompany and a bottle of red wine–just as good as the region’s better-known white.
Suggestions:
• Replace the meat with strong white feta-type cheese–crumble it on when you take off the lid at the end of the cooking time; you’ll need to adjust the vegetable quantities: as a main dish, 3 people can manage 1kg/2 lb of vegetables.
IRISH STEW
(Ireland)
The traditional Irish stew is a ‘white’ stew of potatoes, onion and mutton–the gravy is white because the meat and onions are not given any preliminary frying. The potatoes are such an important element that they should be twice the weight of the meat. After the long cooking the potatoes and onions will be half reduced to a thick creamy mash–Irish stew should never be watery.
Quantity: A hearty dish for 4
Time: Preparation: 20-25 minutes
Cooking: 2 hours
1kg/2 lb neck of mutton or lamb
2kg/4 lb potatoes
500g/1 lb onions
1 litre/1¾ pints water or lamb-bone stock made with the trimmings
Salt and pepper
Utensils: A large lidded casserole
Have the butcher cut the mutton or lamb into chops no more than 2.5cm/1 inch thick. Peel and slice the potatoes and onions. Reserve a quarter of the prepared potatoes (leave them in salted cold water).
In the casserole, arrange a layer of potatoes, then meat, then onion, then potatoes, then more meat, then onion, and finally a layer of potato, seasoning as you go. Pour in the water or stock. Lid as tightly as possible–use a flour-and-water paste to seal if necessary. Cook the stew gently on top of the stove or in a slow oven, 250°F/130°C/Gas ½ for 2 hours. Half an hour before the end of the cooking time, lay the remaining slices of potato on top.
Serve hot in deep soup dishes. A good dark stout should accompany the stew, with brown soda bread and a slice of Irish cheese to finish.
Suggestions:
• An Irish Stew can be converted into an Irish Hot Pot by including the lamb’s kidneys, and removing the lid for the last half hour of cooking to allow the top to brown.
BARLEY BREE OR SCOTCH BROTH
(Scotland)
The great Dr Samuel Johnson, a demanding gourmet, enjoyed this most traditional of Scotland’s dishes on his way to the Hebrides in the 1780s. His biographer Boswell recorded the event: ‘At dinner Dr Johnson ate several plates full of Scotch broth, with barley and peas in it, and seemed very fond of the dish. I said,” You never ate it before.” Johnson:”No, sir; but I don’t care how soon I eat it again” As a one-pot dish, it’s simple enough. Ingredients are as variable as the season, though mutton or lamb and barley should always be present.
Quantity: Serves 4 as a main dish, 6 as soup
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 1½ hours
1kg/2 lb mutton or stewing lamb (neck for preference)
125g/4 oz barley (pearl or pot)
2 litres/4 pints water
1kg/2 lb root vegetables (leeks or onions, carrots, yellow turnips)
Peppercorns
Salt
2 bay leaves
Sprigs of parsley
Parsley to finish
Utensils: A large stew pot and a perforated spoon
Have the meat cut into convenient pieces. Put into a large pot with the barley. Cover with the cold water, bring to the boil, skim and simmer for half an hour. Meanwhile peel and chop or chunk the vegetables as appropriate. Add them at the end of the first half hour, together with a few peppercorns, 2 teaspoons of salt, bay leaves and few sprigs of parsley.
Bring all back to the boil and simmer for another hour. Sprinkle on a generous handful of chopped parsley and a few fine-sliced circles of sliced raw leek.
Serve with girdle scones, butter and a cup of hot milky tea in which you can slip a dram of Scotch whisky. A slice of rich dark gingerbread will complete the feast.
Suggestions:
• Include a handful of dried peas, soaked overnight and added at the beginning of the cooking. If you would like to use fresh or frozen peas, add them 5-10 minutes before the end. Some households like to include cabbage or potatoes–there are no strict rules.
LAMB AND VEGETABLE STEW
Cawl (Wales)
The earliest recorded version of this vegetable and meat soup-stew contained a selection of vegetables–pot herbs from the wild as well as from the kitchen patch–and a piece of bacon. Most subsistence farming households could manage to rear at least one pig. The cawl is still enjoyed as the midday meal in rural Wales–though no longer eaten with the traditional implements, a carved wooden spoon and a wooden bowl. Mountain communities like mutton or lamb, valley dwellers like a bacon hock, South Wellians prefer beef–some like a combination of all three.
Quantity: Plenty for a family of 6, with leftovers for tomorrow
Time: Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: Up to 2½ hours
2kg/3 lb neck of lamb or mutton or bacon hock or beef shin
2 litres/4 pints pure cold water (no stock or cubes)
500g/1 lb leeks
500g/1 lb root vegetables–swedes, carrots, turnips, parsnips
500g/1 lb small potatoes
Bunch of pot herbs–parsley, chervil, chives
Salt and peppercorns
Utensils: A large stew pot and a perforated spoon
Put the meat to boil in a large pot with the water (the meat should be left in a single piece). If you are using lamb or mutton, add 1 teaspoon of salt and a dozen peppercorns. If you use salt gammon, only add peppercorns.
Bring to the boil and skim. Turn down the heat and simmer for 1 hour. If the meat you are using is a tender young joint of lamb, you will not need to cook it for this first hour.
Meanwhile scrub and chop the vegetables into chunks. Scrub and cut the potatoes in half (leave their skins on).
At the end of the first hour, add the pot herbs and the vegetables, reserving one leek and all the potatoes. Simmer for a second hour. Add the potatoes and simmer for another 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are soft. Skim as much of the fat off the top as you can (save it for dripping to fry the breakfast bread).
Slice the leek into fine rings along with a handful of fresh parsley and sprinkle over the surface just before you are ready to dish up. You can serve the broth first–best eaten from a wooden bowl with a wooden spoon to keep it piping hot on a cold day. Serve the meat and vegetables in the same bowl–spoon food, very comforting.
Suggestions:
• A Cawl Ffa–Summer Cawl–is made with broad beans, bacon, potatoes, cabbage and leeks, all thickened with a handful of oatmeal.
• A Harvest Cawl is made with a gammon joint, a whole white cabbage and new potatoes, all flavoured with parsley, savory, leeks, and onion tops.
Leftovers:
• If you have any leftovers, make a second cawl–cawl twymo. When the broth is cold, lift off the layer of fat on the top (save it for frying or pie-making), and add a fresh lot of vegetables to the broth. Reboil the soup until the new vegetables are cooked.
ROAST LAMB WITH MINT SAUCE
(England)
Roast lamb with bitter herbs is the traditional Easter feast throughout the Mediterranean, reflecting the traditions of the Jewish Passover–the blueprint, not surprisingly, for the Christian Easter. In England, however, spring lambs were not sent to market till autumn, and those who wished to celebrate in traditional fashion were obliged to make do with mutton–meat which tastes better to the English palate when accompanied by a sweet-sour sauce flavoured with mint–representing the bitter herbs of Pesach. Saddle, leg or shoulder are the best joints for roasting; the butcher will break the shank off for you to make stock for the gravy.
Quantity: Enough for 5-6
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 1¼ hours
A leg or shoulder of lamb (2.5-3kg/5-6 lb)
Dripping or lard
Sprigs of thyme
Flour for dredging
Pepper and salt
The sauce
A generous handful of mint leaves
150ml/¼ pint boiling water
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ pint cider vinegar
Utensils: A roasting pan, a small saucepan and a small jug
Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C/Gas 7.
If the joint has little fat, spread it well with dripping and then dredge with flour mixed with thyme leaves, a little salt and plenty of ground pepper. Put the lamb on a grid in a roasting pan in a hot oven for a few minutes to let the fat run. Dredge it again to give the tender meat a protective crust. Put it back in the hot oven to seal the crust. After 10 minutes reduce the heat to 375°F/190°C/Gas 5 and continue the cooking of it. Allowing 20 minutes for the first 500g/1lb and 15 minutes thereafter, a 2kg/4 lb joint will take 1¼ hours. Lamb should not be overcooked. Baste it regularly. Turn up the heat again at the end to finish it crisply.
As soon as you have settled the meat in the oven, chop the mint leaves small and drop in a small jug. Cover with boiling water, allow to steep for an hour, and then stir in the sugar and vinegar.
Meanwhile make a little stock with the shank bone and an onion cut in half but with its skin left for the colour. When the meat is cooked, add a ladleful of the stock to the juices in the roasting tin, scraping well to mix in all the little brown bits.
Carve at table and serve on very hot plates, with the mint sauce, plain boiled potatoes, and a tender vegetable–young peas or beans or carrots–handed separately.
Suggestions:
• Serve Welsh-style, with oatmealed laverbread.
Leftovers:
• Make a shepherd’s pie, exactly as for the cottage pie, but using lamb instead of beef. A recipe favoured by the shepherds’ wives of Cumberland and the Lake District–a thorough chopping or mincing being a particularly good trick for tenderizing tough mutton.
• Or make a hot pot by following the recipe below–the preliminary roasting makes it doubly delicious.
LANCASHIRE HOT POT
(England)
Traditionally made with mutton–though lamb is all that’s easily available these days–and cooked in a straight-sided earthenware pot, a small version of the chimney pots which forest the skyline of urban, industrial Lancashire.
Quantity: Enough for 4
Time: Preparation: 20-25 minutes
Cooking: 2-3 hours
1.5kg/3 lb neck of lamb on the bone, or 500g/1 lb leftover sliced lamb
A pair of lamb’s kidneys (optional)
1kg/2 lb potatoes
500g/1 lb onions
500g/1 lb mature carrots
600-900ml/1-1½ pints water or lamb-shank stock
Salt and pepper
Butter
Utensils: A deep casserole with a lid
Divide the lamb into chops. If you are using kidneys, skin and halve them. Scrub and slice the potatoes. Skin and slice the onions. Layer all into a deep earthenware casserole, seasoning as you go and finishing with a layer of potatoes. Boil the water or heat the stock till bubbling and add it to the pot. Dot with butter and lid tightly.
Cook for 2-3 hours in a very low oven, 275°F/140°C/Gas 1. Take the lid off for the last hour so that the crust can brown. Serve with fresh green peas or shredded cabbage cooked in the water which clings to the leaves.
BOILED MUTTON WITH CAPER SAUCE
(England)
Modern tastes require this traditional dish be made with lamb, since mutton is a rare visitor to the butcher’s slab. This is a shame, for it was an excellent and well-flavoured meat, particularly the little Welsh mutton which fed on the sweet marsh grasses and wild thyme of the Cambrian mountains.
Quantity: Serves 6-8
Time: Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 1½-2 hours
A well-grown leg of lamb
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
Large bunch of herbs: mint, thyme, parsley, bay leaves
1.5kg/3 lb root vegetables: carrot, turnip, leek, parsnip, onion
The sauce
2 level tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons capers
1 teaspoon mustard
Large nugget butter
Utensils: A large boiling pot, a perforated spoon, a small saucepan and a whisk
Wipe the meat and put it in a large boiling pot. Cover with cold water and bring all to the boil. Skim off the grey foam which rises. Add the peppercorns, salt, and herbs.
Meanwhile peel the vegetables. Wash all the trimmings and add them to the pot. Simmer the meat for 2 hours if you have mutton, 1 hour for lamb, and then remove the vegetable peelings and herbs. Add the vegetables, cut into chunks. Simmer for another half hour, until the vegetables are soft and the meat tender. Remove as much as you can of the fat which is floating on the top of the stock.
Ten minutes before the end of cooking, scoop off the shiny layer of fat from the surface and reserve; remove a couple of ladlefuls of the cooking liquor, and reserve.
In a small pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the lamb dripping and stir in the flour. Let it fry golden–don’t let it burn. Stir in the hot stock, whisking well so there are no lumps, and then add the capers and a teaspoon of ready-mixed mustard. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Just before serving, whisk in a nugget of cold butter.
Meanwhile, drain the joint and settle it on a hot serving dish surrounded by its vegetables. Little fresh peas or beans (green or broad), and boiled potatoes accompany this dish well, with ale or cider to drink.
Leftovers:
• Slice the leftover meat off the bone and layer it with the leftover vegetables, sliced raw potatoes and the rest of the caper sauce with plenty of parsley and freshly milled pepper. Bake in a bread oven till the potatoes are tender.
HAGGIS
(Scotland)
A very romantic dish, Scotland’s finest, eaten with equal relish by the laird in his castle and the shepherd in his croft. Even Queen Victoria declared herself fond of it. The haggis, however, is not a dainty dish. It’s not open to complication or amendment, being quite simply a large boiling sausage made by stuffing a sheep’s stomach with roughly-ground oatmeal and what’s elegantly know as variety meats, peppered, onioned and flavoured with thyme. Deer offal is also possible, as is pig’s offal. The stuffing can be cooked without recourse to a stomach bag–a dish known as a pan haggis–simply cook the stuffing mixture in a closed pan for an hour or two, stirring regularly, till perfectly tender. It will be good, but not so authentically barbaric.
In the 1890s, historian T.F. Henderson, writing in Old World Scotland, described the enthusiasm with which the dish was greeted by those who could afford little else:‘In the peasant’s home, the haggis was set in the centre of the table, all gathering round with their horn spoons, and it was devil take the hindmost.’
Quantity: Serves 6 crofters, a dozen daintier appetites
Time: Preparation: 1 hour
Cooking: 3-4 hours
1 lamb or mutton stomach bag, thoroughly scrubbed and rinsed
Heart, liver and lungs–the pluck; if you can’t get lungs, tongue and kidneys will do
Salt
175g/6 oz coarse or pinhead oatmeal (not porridge or rolled oats, or you will have a soup mixture and not the light, grainy texture of a good haggis)
500g/1 lb suet (the fat which surrounds the kidneys)
500g/1 lb onions
1 tablespoon crumbled dried thyme
White pepper
Utensils: Plenty of elbow room, a baking tray, a roomy saucepan, a draining spoon, a saucer and a large boiling pot
Tackle the stomach bag first. Turn it inside out, then scrub and scrape it in several changes of cold water. Scald it with a kettleful of boiling water and leave it to soak for a few hours in heavily salted water.
Prepare the pluck: drain the liver and heart of any residual blood (your butcher will probably have done this for you) and give the lungs a good rinse. Put everything in the roomy saucepan with enough cold salted water to cover, allowing the lung tubes to hang over the side of the pan so the air can escape as it heats. Bring all to the boil, skim, turn down the heat and simmer for at least an hour.
Meanwhile prepare the rest of the ingredients. Spread out the oatmeal on the baking tray and toast it golden brown in a hot oven, allowing 10 minutes at 400°F/200°C/Gas 6, tossing it halfway through. Chop the suet and rub out the connecting scraps of membrane with wellfloured fingers. Skin the onions and grate or chop very finely.
Drain the pluck and pick it over, removing black bits and veins. Grate the liver and chop the rest of the meats very small. (You won’t need all the liver–half should be enough.) Mix the meats with the suet and onion and spread the mixture out on the table. Sprinkle with the oatmeal and thyme, and season well with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Some cooks include lemon juice, cayenne pepper and various other flavourings–sage, marjoram, allspice, nutmeg. The secret lies in the proportions–you’ll soon establish your own preference. Mix everything together.
Drain the stomach bag and give it a final rinse. Stuff it with the oatmeal and meat mixture–it should be a little over half-full to allow the oatmeal room to swell. Moisten with stock from the pluck–enough to make the mixture look juicy. Press out the air and sew up the bag. This is the haggis.
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Slip in an upturned metal saucer to protect the haggis from direct heat, and lower the haggis into the water–if you prefer, you can tie it up in clean muslin and suspend it from a wooden spoon placed over the pot’s mouth. As soon as the haggis swells, prick it in a few places with a needle to allow the hot air to escape. Simmer for 3 hours or so. To store, allow to cool and keep in a cool place till needed. To reheat, bring back to the boil and simmer for an hour.
Serve with clapshot, a purée of swede–yellow turnips–beaten with its own volume of mashed potato, well-seasoned and buttered. Keep the fire blazing in the hearth and restrain yourself from pouring whisky on the haggis–far better pour it into yourself.
Suggestions:
• Beef or pork suet can replace the lamb suet. The innards can be replaced with stewing lamb, thoroughly minced.
• Instead of a stomach, commercial haggis makers use ox gut or a non-edible plastic skin, accounting for the small size of the modern haggis.
• Pan haggis: the mixture can equally well be cooked in a bowl, like a steamed pudding. Or cooked like a risotto in a heavy casserole on the stove or in the oven. The pinhead oatmeal is important–you can’t get the same result with ground or porridge oats. If you can’t find pinhead, give whole-grain oats a quick whiz in the coffee grinder.
• To prepare a vegetarian pan haggis, replace the suet with vegetable fat and the meat with wild mushrooms.
• The Greeks make an Easter soup, mageritsa, with lamb’s pluck–prepare as above but replace the oatmeal with rice, the thyme with dill and make it into a soup rather than a sausage; the finishing touch is a light, last-minute thickening of avgolemono–eggs whisked with lemon juice.
Leftovers:
• Haggis is delicious refried–decant it from its container, spread it in a wide frying pan, toss it over the heat and let it crisp a little on the base. Delicious for breakfast with eggs and bacon.
ROASTED KID
Cabrito asado (Spain)
Haunch of kid is the preferred roast meat of rural southern Spain, where the re-education of the Andalusian population after the departure of the Moors extended to the kitchen. Lamb was the favourite meat of the Muslim Moors, and lamb eating became a sign of pro-Muslim feeling, which led the offender into the arms of the Inquisition and the alternative (somewhat more personalized) barbecue afforded by an Auto da Fé. Kid meat is well flavoured and pale in colour–it has a rather gluey texture, which responds well to barbecuing. Insert a clove or two of garlic near the bone, salt the meat well, and baste the joint while it cooks with a rosemary branch dipped in olive oil. Serve with chunks of coarse-textured country bread and a salad. This is the meal for celebrating the roofing-out of a new dwelling.
Suggestions:
• Stew the rest of the kid meat with olive oil, tomatoes, onions, and garlic, moistened with a glass or two of dry white wine and spiced with bayleaves and pepper. It will need longer than the same dish made with lamb.
KID WITH ALMONDS
Chevreuil aux amandes (France)
A dish from Buis-les-Baronnies in the hills of Haute Provence. Traditionally, a celebration feast for weddings and first communions, made with a whole kid serving about 20 people. The use of pounded almonds as a thickening for a sauce can be dated back to medieval or even Roman times.
Quantity: Serves 6
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 1½ hours
A whole shoulder of kid or lamb (chopped across the bone)
175g/6 oz unskinned unblanched almonds
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 whole head garlic cloves, broken but not skinned
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
200ml/1/3 pint vegetable stock or water and white wine
Utensils: A heavy-bottomed pan
Wipe over the kid joints. Put the almonds in a heavy-bottomed pan to fry gently in the oil. When nicely toasted, take them out and put in the meat. Turn it in the hot oil until it browns a little. Add the garlic and the parsley. Pour all but a tablespoon of the stock or water-and-wine and let it bubble up. Turn down the heat and let it simmer gently, loosely lidded, for 1½ hours, until the meat is tender. You can do this in the oven.
Pound the almonds to a paste, diluted with the reserved tablespoon of liquid. Use this to thicken the sauce at the end.
Serve with green vegetables and plenty of bread to mop up the sauce.
OVEN-ROAST LAMB WITH LEMON AND POTATOES
Arni bouti sto furno (Greece)
One of those dishes Greek housewives sent to the baker to be cooked in the residual heat of the oven after the day’s bread making was done. A good dish for a party–just bang it in the oven and walk away. A 2.5kg/5 lb joint of meat on the bone will feed 8 people.
Quantity: Serves 6-8
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 2 hours at least
1 leg or shoulder spring lamb, chopped through to the bone in 6-8 places
A whole head of garlic
2 lemons, rinsed and roughly chunked
150ml/¼ pint olive oil
2kg/4 lb potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 tablespoon oregano
To serve
More lemons
Utensils: A large roasting tin
Wipe the meat. Slip in a few slivers of the garlic (skinned) into the gaps near the bone. Pour a tablespoon of the oil into the roasting tin, and put in the meat, the chunked lemon, the potatoes and the rest of the garlic (unskinned). Sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper, the remaining oil, water and the juice of the other lemon. Cover with foil, shiny side down.
Roast in the oven at a high heat, 400°F/200°C/Gas 6, for the first 15 minutes. Then turn the heat down to 300°F/150°C/Gas 2 and leave to braise gently for 2 hours at least.
Uncover and turn up the heat for the last 20 minutes to brown the meat and gild the potatoes. Sprinkle with a little more water if necessary. The juices should be no more than a sticky residue at the end.
Serve with quartered lemons, bread, and whatever spring leaves come to hand–rocket, dandelion, poppy rosettes, young turnip tops, baby spinach, sorrel.
Suggestions:
• Spit-roasted whole baby lamb–arni souvlas–is the traditional Easter Sunday feast all over Greece, an outdoor celebration at which Homer’s warriors would have been perfectly at ease. Athenians head out of the city for the tavernas in the countryside where specialist roasting cooks, mostly from the villages, have been hard at work since dawn. At Easter, a young Greek lamb weighs between 10-12kg/22-24 lb and will take about 3 hours. The usual basting liquid is olive oil, lemon juice, salt and crumbled oregano. Among rural communities, each family roasts its own in the open air–the cook has to rise at four in the morning to prepare the lamb, the fire and the spit. As soon as the fire dies down, while everyone waits for the meat to be ready, the innards, kokoretsi–well-scrubbed, chunked and threaded on skewers, seasoned, flavoured with oregano and lemon juice, bandaged in snowy loops of intestine and well basted with olive oil–are roasted till crisp, 30 minutes at least, to be eaten as mezze. Meanwhile, during the course of the day, neighbours visit each other’s barbecues to taste and compare each cook’s skill.
BRAISED SHOULDER OF LAMB WITH TURNIPS
Epaule d’agneau aux navets (France)
The French way with a well-grown shoulder–mutton and turnips have a particular affinity. Serve with mashed potato into which you have beaten an extravagant amount of chopped parsley.
Quantity: Serves 4
Time: Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
1 boned rolled shoulder of lamb
2-3 garlic cloves, skinned and slivered lengthways
50g/2 oz butter
500g/1 lb small onions (pickling, for choice), skinned
500g/1 lb young turnips, peeled and quartered
Pinch sugar
600ml/1 pint lamb stock made with the bone (or plain water)
1 glass white wine
Small bunch thyme, bay, parsley
Salt and crushed pepper
Utensils: A roomy casserole
Wipe the meat, dry it thoroughly and shove the slivers of garlic wherever you can find a gap (make little slits with a knife, if necessary). Sprinkle generously with crushed pepper.
In a roomy casserole which just accommodates the joint and its vegetables, melt the butter. When it foams, sear the meat on all sides. Remove and reserve. Fry the onions gently in the same butter, letting them brown and soften a little. Remove and reserve. Brown the turnips, sprinkled with the sugar so they caramelise a little. Remove and reserve.
Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6.
Return the meat to the casserole, pour in the wine and bubble it up till all the alcohol has evaporated. Add the stock or water, tuck in the herbs, season, bring back to the boil, lid tightly and transfer to the oven for 2-2½ hours. After 1 hour, add the reserved onions and turnips. Check regularly and baste frequently–if it looks like drying out, add a little more hot water.
At the end of the cooking time, the meat should be so tender you can eat it with a spoon and the cooking juices reduced to a fragrant lick of sauce. Serve on a hot dish, surrounded by its vegetables.
LAMB MEATBALLS IN EGG AND LEMON SAUCE
Youvarlakia avgolemono (Greece)
The Ionian island version of this universal favourite is simple and fresh and flavoured with mint. The egg-and-lemon thickening, while quintessentially Greek is of venerable ancestry–it was made in the kitchens of Ancient Egypt, Byzantium and Rome. Use it to enrich a chicken soup, to thicken a sauce for fish or in any soup or sauce which might benefit from the velvety sharp flavours.
Quantity: Serves 4
Time: Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
500g/1 lb finely minced lamb
1 small onion, skinned and very finely chopped (grated, if you like)
2 tablespoons round (pudding) rice
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
Salt and pepper
Flour for dusting
1.5 litres/2½ pints stock or water
The sauce
2 eggs (3 if small), separated
Juice of 2 lemons
Utensils: A mincer or food processor, a large frying pan with a lid, a bowl and a whisk
Work the meat thoroughly with the onion, rice, herbs, salt and pepper. When it is thoroughly mixed, shape into walnut-sized balls and roll lightly in flour.
Bring the stock or water to the boil in a shallow pan and drop in the meatballs one by one. Cover loosely and simmer gently for an hour.
Just before you are ready to serve, whisk the egg whites in a roomy bowl. When they are quite stiff, whisk in the yolks. When the mixture is pale yellow and fluffy, whisk in the lemon juice. Whisk in the hot (but not boiling) juices from the meatballs ladleful by ladleful. Pour the sauce over the meatballs and serve immediately with plenty of bread for mopping.
Suggestions:
• The meat mixture can also be used to stuff vine leaves for the classic dolmades. Scald the leaves first and use them to wrap little cylinders of stuffing, and proceed as above.
MEATBALLS
Köttbullar (Sweden)
In this, the northern version of the Turkish stuffed vine-leaf dish, dolmades, cabbage replaces the southerner’s vine leaves. It seems likely that the dish arrived in Sweden with the creditors of the warrior-King Charles XII. His Majesty had been roundly defeated in 1709 by Tsar Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava, and the great military adventurer had escaped by the skin of his teeth without his army. He took refuge in Turkey, where he attempted without success to persuade the Sultan to take up arms on his behalf. When, some five years later, Charles set off to ride home, his Turkish creditors and their obligatory retinue of cooks followed. Although Charles (who managed to start another Nordic war on his return) died in 1718, the Turks stayed around for a further 15 years to collect what they were owed.
Quantity: Enough for 5-6 as a main dish
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
500g/1 lb minced meat
1 small onion
50g/2 oz fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg
½ teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Optional to make a sauce
300ml/½ pint double cream or soured cream and 1 teaspoon flour
1 tablespoon tomato purée
Utensils: A bowl and a frying pan
Put the meat in a bowl. Grate in the onion and add the breadcrumbs, egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix all together and knead thoroughly. Dip your hands into warm water and form the mixture into small balls no bigger than a mouthful.
Melt the butter in a frying pan. When it’s foaming, add the meatballs and fry gently, shaking the pan to keep them nicely rounded, for 5-10 minutes till well browned and firm. They can be served as they are, or bathed in a sauce of thick cream bubbled up to reduce it a little (if using soured cream, you’ll need to whisk in a teaspoon of flour) coloured or not, as you please, with a little tomato purée.
A favourite of the smørgåsbord table, or serve as a main dish with cranberry sauce, peas and plain boiled potatoes.
AUBERGINE MOUSSAKA
Papoutsakia (Greece)
The Ionian island version of moussaka is a luxurious dish of aubergines stuffed with an Italian ragu–appropriately enough, since the islands were once part of the Venetian empire. Every household has its own recipe: this version is from Ithaca, Ulysses’ homeland. It’s finished with a plain tomato sauce and topped with an egg-enriched white sauce. The aubergines should be firm and fat and with a good glossy skin–as they always are when gathered from your own garden. The islanders don’t always have access to fresh meat: substitutions are grated quince and crumbled feta cheese.
Quantity: Serves 4 as a main course
Time: Preparation and cooking: 1½ hours
6 firm, plump aubergines, hulled and halved
Olive oil for frying
The ragu
500g/1lb minced meat (beef for preference) or a handful crumbled feta and 2-3 quinces, finely chopped
2 onions, skinned and chopped fine
3-4 garlic cloves, skinned and chopped fine
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
A short stick of cinnamon (or 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon)
1 teaspoon tomato paste
4 large tomatoes, skinned and chopped
The tomato sauce
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, skinned and finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, skinned and chopped
600ml/1 pint concentrated tomato juice or passata or 1 large can (400g) plum tomatoes, whizzed to a purée
The white sauce
3 tablespoons clarified butter or oil
6 heaped tablespoons flour
1 scant litre/2 pints full-cream milk
3 eggs, forked up
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2-3 tablespoons grated hard cheese (Kefalotiri for preference, cheddar or parmesan will do)
To finish
More grated cheese
Utensils: A sieve, frying pan, large and small saucepan, whisk, and a gratin dish
First criss-cross the cut side of the aubergines, and put them to fry gently in the oil. Let them cook until soft (they shrink amazingly) and then transfer to a sieve to drain thoroughly.
Now make the ragu. Put the ingredients in a roomy pan (no need to fry the meat or any Turkish nonsense) and let it all simmer for an hour until the meat is tender. Quince and feta will take half the time.
In another pan, simmer the ingredients for the tomato sauce–it should reduce uncovered for about half an hour. In a third pan (no problem with the washing-up in Greece), make a béchamel. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, stir in the flour and fry until it goes sandy, but does not take colour. Whisk in the milk and whisk over the heat until the sauce thickens. Off the heat, as soon as the sauce cools a little, whisk in the eggs. Stir in the cheese, season with salt and pepper and nutmeg.
Arrange the drained, cooled aubergines in a shallow baking dish. Squish the soft part of the aubergine, spoon in the meat stuffing, top with tomato sauce, and finish with the béchamel. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in a medium oven–350°F/180°C/Gas 4–for about 20 minutes, until brown and bubbling.
Suggestions:
• In winter, slices of dried aubergine replace the fresh. In spring, before the first aubergines mature in the garden, the ragu and the white sauce can be used to make pastitsio, best-loved of Greece’s baked pasta dishes–macaroni (ziti), cooked in boiling water till nearly tender, then layered and baked as for the papoutsakia.