Read Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 Online
Authors: Julia Child
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (86 page)
Rapidly roll pastry out into a flattened pear shape ¼ inch thick, 6 inches longer at the large end, and 6 inches wider than the leg of lamb.
Starting at large end, unroll or unfold the pastry over the lamb
.
Leaving an inch of the shank bone exposed, allow enough pastry to tuck in all around and enclose lamb completely; trim off excess. |
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| Make pastry cutouts with leftover dough, such as long strips ⅜ inch wide cut with a pastry wheel, and 2-inch ovals formed with a fluted cookie cutter. Paint top of covering dough with egg glaze, and |
When all decorations are in place, brush surface of dough and decorations with egg glaze. |
|
6)
Final baking—25 to 30 minutes at 450 degrees and 400 degrees
Place in middle level of preheated oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until pastry has started to brown nicely; reduce heat to 400 degrees for the final 5 to 10 minutes of baking. Lamb is done to rosy rare at a thermometer reading of 130 degrees, or at the first sign of juices exuding from underside of lamb onto baking sheet. (
NOTE
: Some prefer lamb rarer, 125 degrees on the thermometer, while others like it medium rare, or around 140 to 145 degrees. Roast the lamb to the thermometer reading you prefer.)
Remove lamb from oven as soon as it is done; carefully lift it, and slide a rack under it so that the juices will not moisten the crust. Lamb should rest 15 to 20 minutes before carving. (When ready to serve, place lamb on platter, and pour any accumulated juices into whatever sauce you have prepared.)
(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: Lamb will stay warm enough in its crust for 30 minutes; after that return to warming oven or anywhere that you can maintain a temperature of 110 to 120 degrees, where it may remain another half hour at least.
7)
Serving
A hot, lightly buttered serving platter or a carving board
Optional but desirable: 3 cups excellent brown sauce made from the lamb bones and meat scraps (Volume I, pages 69–70), in a hot sauce bowl
Transfer lamb to platter or carving board, and pour any roasting juices into sauce. Make a presentation of the
gigot
, for all to admire. To carve, cut down in bias (diagonal) slices across the grain, first from one side of the large end, then from the other; if the first few slices contain no stuffing, set aside for second helpings. When you come to the thinner portion of the meat nearer the shank, you can cut straight across. Pass sauce separately, along with whatever vegetables you have chosen.
ÉPAULE D’AGNEAU FARCIE, VIROFLAY
[Braised, Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb]
Shoulder of lamb is far less expensive than leg of lamb, usually by at least a third, and is an elegant roast when stuffed and braised. The spinach and mushroom mixture suggested here makes attractive slices, and if you serve the
potatoes in basil
and whole baked tomatoes, you will have a colorful and fragrant main course. A red Bordeaux-Saint-Émilion would be an excellent choice of wine.
A NOTE ON BONED SHOULDER OF LAMB
Most markets will bone a lamb shoulder for you, or you will find them ready-boned, rolled, and tied; you untie and unroll them for stuffing. Ask also for a pound or so of sawed lamb bones, or for veal or beef bones, to give character to your braising liquid. (Full information on lamb shoulders is in Volume 1, page 330).
For 8 people
