Slow-roasted lamb: A marriage of flavors from Provence

“Lamb and anchovies might seem an odd combination,” said Heston Blumenthal in Heston Blumenthal at Home (Bloomsbury). But lamb with rosemary and anchovies combines three “classic flavors of Provence.” When added to a slow-cooked roast, anchovies heighten the savoriness of the dish “without tasting at all fishy.”

My restaurant outside London, the Fat Duck, is known for helping to popularize sous-vide cooking. To me, it’s “the most sophisticated method of cooking food slowly at low temperatures.” Yet you can also get excellent results from slow-roasting at low temperatures, which negates the need for any “special technology.”

The key isn’t the searing. Searing adds color and flavor, but it doesn’t “seal in the juices,” as you’ve often heard. You retain meat’s juices instead by cooking at low temperatures and cooking long enough that the heat still breaks down collagen—the strands of connective tissue that make meat tough and chewy. All in all, slow roasting is “a very forgiving form of cooking,” transforming even such neglected cuts as brisket, tongue, and cheeks “into something truly melt-in-your-mouth delicious.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Recipe of the week

Roast leg of lamb with anchovies, rosemary, and garlic

1 leg of lamb, approximately 4 lbs

Salt

3 tbsp groundnut or grapeseed oil

6 cloves garlic, peeled, halved, and degermed

2 cups milk

12 anchovies in olive oil, drained, rinsed, and cut in half

4 sprigs rosemary

White wine

½ tsp Dijon mustard

2 cups lamb or beef stock

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Season lamb with salt. Heat oil in heavy frying pan over high heat. When oil is smoking hot, add lamb and sear until golden brown on all sides. Remove lamb from pan and place in a roasting tray.

Blanch garlic in ½ cup milk four times, using a fresh ½ cup of milk each time. Cut blanched garlic into slivers. Using a sharp knife, cut slits in surface of lamb at regular intervals. Use a small spoon to enlarge slits and stuff them with an anchovy slice, a garlic sliver, and a few rosemary leaves.

Place lamb in preheated oven for approximately 3 to 4 hours, until internal temperature of the meat reaches 130 degrees. When cooked, remove the lamb from the oven, wrap it in foil, and allow to rest at least 30 minutes.

For sauce: While lamb is resting, place roasting pan over medium heat. Add a splash of white wine to deglaze, then add mustard and stock, and reduce to a sauce consistency. Pour into a warm jug.

Remove foil from the roast and carve. Serves 4 to 6.