Shoulder of lamb.....not so lowly

[Nick Armstrong]

Jane Griggson has a recipe for shoulder of lamb stuffed with crab. Ideally the lamb shout be reared on a salt-marsh. I haven't tried it but would love to.

Golly Moses - interesting!

http://neilcooksgrigson.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/299-leg-of-lamb-stuffed-with-crab.html

[amateur51]

All this talk of that wonderful stuff is doing terrible things for my appetite(!) - but "ask your butcher"? - well, they do still exist, you know! - even here in darkest Herefordistan (where they arguably have even more reason still to do so as they might elsewhere).

Ludlow in neighbouring Shropshire has almost as many butchers as it has pubs ... almost

[amateur51]

Many's the receipt that recommends studding your lamb joint with anchovy pieces so perhaps crab ain't so strange after all

If you are buying a joint from a proper butcher why not ask if s/he has any kidneys available for sale still wrapped in their own fat? Set alongside the roasting joint, the self-basting beauties with lend even more flavour to your gravy and the melted fat is easily spooned off, and the kidneys themselves will be succulent & flavoursome.

And one of the delights of my childhood in Wales, ask your butcher for a few labs' tails. They can be roasted separately or on another occasion. the fat crisps up nicely and, once they're cool enough to handle, make a delicious nibbling treat, lots of sweet but fibrous meat twixt the crispy flavoursome lamb fat.

If you drink sufficient alcohol with all this, you won't be able to hear your arteries hardening

[ardcarp]

All of the above sound tempting...but is there a line to be drawn? If you add too much other stuff (eg crab, anchovies)) is there a danger of losing that single unbeatable lamb flavour? OK I know rosemary and garlic went along with ours, but they seem hallowed by time (oh dear, pun-thyme...oh stop it). I sometimes watch these TV chefs pouring in heaps of herbs, spices and occasionally other small animals, and I just wonder if they are confusing the taste-buds.

[arancie33]

Ludlow in neighbouring Shropshire has almost as many butchers as it has pubs ... almost

Sadly, not so many now. We now have three, all small and independent. Still a better proportion for a town of some 10k souls than most places but a few years ago we had six.

[ahinton]

Many's the receipt that recommends studding your lamb joint with anchovy pieces so perhaps crab ain't so strange after all

If you are buying a joint from a proper butcher why not ask if s/he has any kidneys available for sale still wrapped in their own fat? Set alongside the roasting joint, the self-basting beauties with lend even more flavour to your gravy and the melted fat is easily spooned off, and the kidneys themselves will be succulent & flavoursome.

And one of the delights of my childhood in Wales, ask your butcher for a few labs' tails. They can be roasted separately or on another occasion. the fat crisps up nicely and, once they're cool enough to handle, make a delicious nibbling treat, lots of sweet but fibrous meat twixt the crispy flavoursome lamb fat.

If you drink sufficient alcohol with all this, you won't be able to hear your arteries hardening

I was already thinking how wonderfully you had recounted all of this even before I got to split my sides with sheer pleasure at your delightful punchline!

[ahinton]

Ludlow in neighbouring Shropshire has almost as many butchers as it has pubs ... almost

Ah, yes - Shropshire - with its fine restaurants (albeit mostly in Ludlow, as you mention); Ludlow, as you know, is in the south of that area and I'm not so sure that Herefordistan deserves to have it so near to is northern border (it seems that southern Shropsbekistan is the particular bit that has those butchers and eating houses).

Herefordshire, by the way, deserves to be as famous for its pork as it actually is for its beef and lamb - though on the subject of local lamb I will of couse happily and appropriately defer to our resident Welsh lamb Anna!...

[amateur51]

All of the above sound tempting...but is there a line to be drawn? If you add too much other stuff (eg crab, anchovies)) is there a danger of losing that single unbeatable lamb flavour? OK I know rosemary and garlic went along with ours, but they seem hallowed by time (oh dear, pun-thyme...oh stop it). I sometimes watch these TV chefs pouring in heaps of herbs, spices and occasionally other small animals, and I just wonder if they are confusing the taste-buds.

I tend to agree with you ardcarp - I've only done the anchovy thang once and frankly its presence was not noticeable aside from there being no need to salt the gravy so I'd not recommend it. I imagine that the flavour of crab would get lost too.

[ardcarp]

a decent claret - I wd suggest a pauillac

Anyone been to Pauillac? I sailed there about 20 years ago. Up the Gironde on the right (left bank!). Red and green wine-bottle-shaped buoys mark entrance to small marina. Local wine rather expensive, I recall. Am I off-topic?

[amateur51]

Sadly, not so many now. We now have three, all small and independent. Still a better proportion for a town of some 10k souls than most places but a few years ago we had six.

That's sad to hear, arancie. I used to go to Ludlow for weekends/holidays quite often for a while a good few years ago, which concided with the time that Shaun Hill (now of The Walnut Tree in Llandewi Skirrid) was running the miniscule set-up at The Merchant House in Ludlow - what a fine cook he is

[amateur51]

I was already thinking how wonderfully you had recounted all of this even before I got to split my sides with sheer pleasure at your delightful punchline!

Cheers ahinton - I'm currently trying to find out where to get the red wines of Empordà that you praised so vividly

[Flosshilde]

Golly Moses - interesting!

http://neilcooksgrigson.blogspot.co....with-crab.html

Ah - my memory was clearly faulty (so what's new? some might say - justifiably) & it was leg & not shoulder. Still, it would work just as well with shoulder, I'm sure.

It's shaming that an American should be the person who explores & clebrates Jane Grigson & English cooking; when Elizabeth David died she wqas celebrated as reviving interest in food & cooking in Britain. I thought that with her books on southern European & Mediteranean food she diverted people's attention from the rich history & quality of English food & created the impressiuon that good food only came from Europe. Jane Grigson, on the other hand, promoted that history & showed that we had a culinary history that was as good as anyone else's.

[Flosshilde]

Ah - it's possible that he's not American - just living in America, as a response to one of his posts refers to him as being 'back in Manchester'


(Oh, & he's gay.)

(I just put that in to annoy some people)


()

[arancie33]

That's sad to hear, arancie. I used to go to Ludlow for weekends/holidays quite often for a while a good few years ago, which concided with the time that Shaun Hill (now of The Walnut Tree in Llandewi Skirrid) was running the miniscule set-up at The Merchant House in Ludlow - what a fine cook he is

Yes, and to my mind The Merchant House was the best of the lot but is now a private house. Hibiscus and chef patron upped sticks for London town; the building is now La Bécasse and still with a fine reputation. Any others, I don't rate for a whole raft of reasons we needn't go into now.

I have been caught out a couple of times recently by people stopping me in town and asking if I know where is good for lunch. Tricky, because I eat lunch at home and have no cause to do otherwise and really am at a loss to make a reliable recommendation. Anyway, am now well off topic so .... when we had lamb roasted when the children were small the youngest had the task of slitting the surface and stuffing in garlic cloves. These days, with the loss of child labour, we just roast a couple of garlic bulbs and some rosemary sprigs with the joint. Without, it just doesn't hit the spot.

[Nick Armstrong]

Anyone been to Pauillac? I sailed there about 20 years ago. Up the Gironde on the right (left bank!). Red and green wine-bottle-shaped buoys mark entrance to small marina. Local wine rather expensive, I recall. Am I off-topic?

Yes, and very pleasantly so