Roast lamb larded with orange peel

The marriage of lamb and citrus dates at least to the seventeenth century in England. In The Accomplish’t Cook , which first appeared in 1660 and has enjoyed several printings including an exemplary facsimile from Prospect Books, Robert May roasts a chine of mutton with orange peel, and Ivan Day, a food reenactor but in the good rather than themepark way, updates the recipe. His version is simpler than May’s, whose version is both figuratively and literally Baroque.

From goodfood.com:

“Leg of lamb

20cm x 5cm [8 x 2 inch] strips of orange peel
Juice of 3 oranges (bitter or sweet)

Use larding needles to thread the peel into the skin on the lamb. The technique is to load the hollow needle with peel, push in hard and pull out hard,” which sounds like innuendo but does describe the way to do it, “leaving the peel behind. Roast the lamb in the usual way. Towards the end of cooking pour on the orange juice and use it to baste the meat and to mix with the cooking juices to make the gravy.”

Notes:

-Larding needles are Old School, cheap and useful. The process, while fun, can take time to master. Not for the indecisive cook.

-The alternative is the conventional modern method used to infuse lamb with rosemary and garlic, or anchovy. Just cut slits in the meat and shove short strands of peel into the gap.

-A stickler (or sticker) like Day will roast the lamb on a spit which, as he notes, “produces the most succulent meat but you can also use the oven.” Day owns a number of eighteenth century implements including various spits and jacks but no dogs, which were bred for the purpose of turning spits on a treadmill by subjecting them to the carrot technique, in their case a morsel of meat dangling just out of reach on a line.

-At that point Day might have given his reader a bit more guidance. For good pink meat, roast the lamb on the bone at 425 for about 20 minutes per pound or until a thermometer deep inside the meat but not touching the bone reads about 130°.

-“The original recipes, as Day does note, “uses peel from the bitter Seville [sic] orange,” which was the variety known to the sixteen sixteenth century and is the better way to go. If you cannot get bitter orange add a proportion to your liking of lemon juice.