Roast Lamb
Source: Abby Fisher, 1881
History
Roast Lamb is recipe No. 17 in "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking" (San Francisco, 1881), among Abby Fisher's roast meats. She keeps it brief, cross-referencing her own earlier method: "Prepare in the same way as the roast beef, except the lamb should be well done. In a hot oven, one hour is necessary to cook the lamb." She follows it with her mint sauce — "Chop tender mint very fine, put cold water or vinegar, one tablespoonful of vinegar to three of water, and a little sugar according to taste."
Fisher was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in June 1831 to Abbie Clifton. Genealogical research in San Francisco records identifies her father as James J. Andrews, an Orangeburg planter who held some seventy people in slavery, and an 1869 receipt from the Freedman's Savings and Trust in Mobile records her under her mother's name. Before 1865, censuses recorded only an enslaver's name with the age and sex of those he held, so no surviving record names Fisher herself; Karen Hess, who rediscovered her book, noted that absence of documentation. She could neither read nor write and dictated the book, offering it as "a book of my knowledge — based on an experience of upwards of thirty-five years." Her cooking carried public standing: a diploma at the Sacramento State Fair in 1879 and two medals at the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute Fair in 1880.
The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular preparation. It survives as Fisher set it down, under her own name.
Ingredients
- lamb
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 3 tablespoon water
- tender mint
- sugar
Instructions
- Prepare the lamb in the same way as roast beef.
- Roast in a hot oven for one hour, ensuring the lamb is well done.
- Chop tender mint very fine.
- Mix the mint with cold water or vinegar, using one tablespoonful of vinegar to three of water.
- Add a little sugar according to taste and serve with the roast.