Lamb stuffed with oysters

Lamb stuffed with oysters is, as Jane Grigson would say, an eighteenth century recipe and a good one, suitable for Easter dinner or any grand occasion. The marriage may appear unlikely to twentieth century sensibilities but the couple is remarkably congenial. Eliza Smith published a recipe in 1729 and the tradition still held sway with Eliza Acton over a century later. An easy dish to prepare despite its impressive impact. For six to eight.

a boned and butterflied lamb leg of about 4-5 lb

For the stuffing:

a dozen or so oysters
about 1 cup breadcrumbs
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
zest of ½ lemon
½ teaspoon mace
2 Tablespoons minced parsley
an egg yolk or two
some, usually about a Tablespoon, of the oyster liquor

For the sauce:

¾ cup oyster liquor
½ cup red wine, preferably Bordeaux, or Port, preferably tawny
2 or 3 minced anchovies-about 2 Tablespoons minced onion
a few nutmeg gratings
6 or more minced oysters
pan drippings from the lamb

Preheat the oven to 325˚.

Dump all the ingredients into a food processor and blast them to a homogenous paste. Start with but a splash of the liquor and add more as required. You want a paste, not a slurry
Smear the inside of the lamb with the stuffing; if any is leftover coat the top of the lamb with it after you roll and tie the leg.
Roast the lamb on a rack until pink or more as you like, usually in about four or more hours, or until a meat thermometer hits 145-50.
Start the sauce by simmering everything but the oysters together until the solids collapse, which take less time than roasting the meat.
Once the lamb is done, finish the sauce while the meat rests a good 20 minutes by returning it to the heat, whisking the drippings from the pan into the sauce and then adding the oysters to cook them through.

Notes:

-“In this preparation,” as Miss Acton properly says of the stuffing in her peerless Modern Cookery for Private Families, “the flavour of the oysters should predominate.”

-Eighteenth century cooks also like to stuff lamb with crab; substitute at least a generous half pound for the oysters. It sounds about as strange, and tastes just as spectacular, as the oysters stuffing.

-Mrs. Smith uses a few anchovies instead of the zest, substitutes thyme and savory for the parsley and thickens the stuffing with mashed hard boiled instead of raw egg yolks, a widespread eighteenth century practice.

-The sauce is essentially hers.

-White wine never appears in the sauce recipes, but is less alien to most palates today.