To dress a showlder of mutton
ELINOR FETTIPLACE’S RECEIPT BOOK
Take a showlder of mutton and beinge halfe Roasted, Cut it in great slices and save the gravie then take Clarret wine and sinamond & suger w’h a little Cloves and mace beatne and the pill of an orange Cut thin and minced very smale, put the mutton the gravie and these thinges together and boyle yt between two dishes, wringe the Juice of an oringe into yt as yt boyle when yt is boyled enough lay the bone of the mutton being first Broyled in the dish w’h it then Cut slices of limonds and lay on the mutton and so serve yt in
Lamb with Spiced Orange Sauce
Description
This recipe demonstrates a popular method of preparing joints at the time - partially roasting it, then slicing it and braising it. This creates a flavorful exterior then captures all of the meat juices while rendering what may otherwise be a tough roast into something fork-tender and delicious. This recipe will work with leg, shoulder, or shank of lamb. In my case, I used the leg because it was readily available. The shoulder and shank should be fully cooked and braised as described in this recipe - though if the bone remains in the shank, you will want to leave it whole rather than sliced. For the leg, you can fully cook it as I have, or leave it underdone to the temperature of your preference.
The original recipe does not tell us whether we should be using Seville oranges, which are bitter oranges, or the then newly-popular sweet oranges from China. Seville oranges remained far more popular in cooking at this time, and the addition of sugar leads me to believe that was the original intent. Seville oranges are quite difficult to find in the USA so I have used two ingredients that do feature them to get us as close to the target as possible - Goya Bitter Orange Marinade and Tiptree Marmalade. If you have access to fresh Seville oranges, by all means, use them, and adjust the Sugar upward by another 1/4 c. or so to make up the difference from the Marmalade you would omit.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Season the lamb generously with Salt
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Roast the lamb at 450°F until nicely browned (half-done) in a braising pot without a lid, about 30-45 minutes
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Slice the lamb into 1" slices
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Mix the Claret, Cinnamon, Cloves, Mace, Bitter Orange Juice, Marmalade, Sugar, Orange Peel, and any juices from carving
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Deglace the braising pot with this liquid
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Add the slices of Lamb to the liquid
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Reduce the oven to 300°F and return the dish, uncovered, to braise for 3 hours or so, until fork-tender
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Remove meat from the braising liquid, and cut into gobbets
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Reduce the liquid by half on the stove top and season it. Serve on the side
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Garnish with slices of fresh Lemon
