[Sca-cooks] lamb breast

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Vincent Cuenca:
>The local independent grocery store is selling lamb breasts at a 
>ridiculously low price ($0.99 per pound!!!)  Now, I love lamb, but 
>I've never really dealt with this part of the critter before. I've 
>seen recipes for stuffed lamb breast; how do I carve and seve it? 
>How many people can a reasonably-sized lamb breast serve?  Should I 
>just barbecue the darn thing like pork spareribs?
>
>Anybody got any favorite recipes?

Depends if you're eating them or just admiring the recipes ;-).

Many people used to use lamb breast for Irish Stew, which doesn't 
seem like something you'd want to do in a Midwestern summer.

What I actually _would_ do with them is marinate them in red wine 
with lots of flattened garlic cloves, thyme and/or rosemary, S&P, and 
barbecue them like pork spare ribs, either on a grill or by actual 
barbecuing. In this case I'd think about charcoal grilling.

My favorite recipe, though, would definitely be for epigrammes of 
lamb. (Originally done with veal breast, but amply supported as a 
lamb dish of the same cut.) It seems a prominent hostess (stories 
vary as to when and where; mid-18th-century Paris is usually named) 
was told of a dinner party a friend had attended the night before, at 
which the epigrams were plentiful and exceptional. Upon hearing this, 
the hostess instructed her own cook, who was preparing for a large 
dinner that evening, to prepare a dish of epigrammes. So he did.

There are several variants on the basic recipe, and I won't quote one 
here, but I'll describe the basic dish:

You simmer your whole breast of veal/lamb in stock until very tender, 
but not falling apart; the object is to able to pick out the bones 
easily without tearing the meat. Lay the meat flat on a board and 
press under another board, weighted, chilling until you have a firm, 
cold, boneless steaklike entity.

You then cut this into cutlet shapes, or rounds or squares. Some 
recipes have you layer these with similar slices of ham, IIRC. Dip in 
flour, egg, and bread crumbs, then saute or grill until brown and 
crispy. Serve surrounded by vegetables and with a sauce made by 
reducing the clarified braising stock to a demi-glaze.

The hostess, meanwhile, had completely forgotten her instructions to 
her chef, and the dish was a great success. The chef was sent for, 
and asked about the dish, which he pronounced to be epigrammes of 
veal. The hostess, evidently in Margaret Dumont mode, did not see the 
humor of it.

James Beard seems to feel you need a pound of lamb or veal breast, or 
spare ribs, per adult to make such a meat worthwhile, as there is a 
lot of waste to bones, fat, and connective tissue. (He's speaking 
generically of the cut, of course, not of epigrammes.) He's probably 
right, but I suspect it makes a difference what else is served.

Adamantius