Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (84 page)

Furnish yourself with two stout-bladed, very sharp knives, one small and one larger. Always keeping the knife blade against the bone, scrape all around against the complicated structure of the tail-hip assembly, disfiguring the meat as little as possible, until you are able to cut the tendons that join the hip to the ball joint of the main leg bone, thus releasing the hip.

To remove the main leg bone, cut around its exposed ball joint buried in the thick end of the meat. Loosen flesh all around and down the bone inside the meat until you come to its opposite ball joint at the knee. You now have two choices, one easier and the other longer but cleverer. The easiest way to remove the bone is to slit the underside of the meat at the knee to expose the bones; making as small a hole outside as possible, cut around knee joint, sever tendons, and draw the bone out from the large end of the meat. Close the meat neatly at the knee by sewing or skewering. The longer maneuver is to get the bone without piercing the skin at the knee. By persistent poking and cutting around the bone inside the meat at the joint, by twisting the bone, by turning the meat inside out around the bone as far down as you can for better visibility, you will finally be able to free it from the tendons attaching it to the knee and pull the bone out.

The flap of meat that contained the hip and tail, at the large end of the leg, is called the sirloin. You may slice it off and use at another meal for roasting, steaks, or shishkebob, or you may grind part of it for stuffing back into the leg as suggested in the following recipe. (If you wish to leave the flap on, skewer it against the main body of the leg after stuffing.)

Either fill the pocket with stuffing, pushing it well down into all spaces left by the bones, or sprinkle in a flavoring of salt, pepper, minced parsley, a clove of minced garlic, and a big pinch of rosemary or thyme.

Whether filled or not,
close the pocket with skewers and string
.

RECIPES FOR BONED LEG OF LAMB

You may proceed with the recipe for
gigot farci en croûte
, or you may roast the boned, stuffed, and skewered leg of lamb just as it is, following the Master Recipe in Volume I, page 332; it is also delicious roasted with the herbal mustard coating also in Volume I, on page 335. After the roast has rested 15 to 20 minutes out of the oven, the meat will have settled into place and you can remove the string and skewers. To carve, cut down in bias (diagonal) slices across the grain, first from one side of the large end, then from the other; if the first few slices contain no stuffing, set aside for second helpings.
When you come to the thinner portion of the meat nearer the shank, you can cut straight across.

GIGOT FARCI, EN CROÛTE

[Boned, Stuffed Lamb Baked in Pastry]

At least one great French provincial restaurant has made its reputation on
gigot farci en croûte
, and any home cook who has mastered French puff pastry or
brioche
dough can make this splendidly dramatic presentation every bit as well. The recipe consists of the boned and stuffed leg of lamb, illustrated in the preceding pages, which is first roasted in a very hot oven until partially cooked, then draped in pastry, decorated with pastry cutouts, glazed, and set back in the oven again to cook and brown the crust. Although you have to watch your timing on this so as not to overcook the lamb, it is reasonably amenable to delays as indicated by the asterisks (*) at the end of most of the steps in the recipe. Do go over it well before starting in, so that you will have a good idea of timing and of stopping points. We suggest that you make the pastry dough the day before serving. You might also bone the lamb, prepare the stuffing, and simmer the sauce called for in Step 7; the actual cooking will then be much simplified.