The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fire
Set a hundredweight of wood on fire in an open area.
Once burnt, pile the ashes in a pyramid shape, about the length of the lamb.
Place stones about a foot high at each end, 18 inches from the fire.
Roast the lamb
Spit the lamb on a long piece of wood with a rough handle.
Turn the lamb by one person while moving the ashes to revive the fire.
Baste the lamb with feathers dipped in oil.
Place a pan underneath to catch the fat.
Cook for about three hours until done to perfection.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Lamb
- The main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful through slow cooking over embers.
- Oil
- Brushed onto the meat to add moisture and help the surface brown.
The step that matters
Keeping the fire steady while turning the lamb. Moving the ashes and turning the spit keeps the heat even. Uneven heat can scorch some areas while leaving others undercooked, so the fire must be revived as it fades.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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