Lamb Poll

1965-67, Peace Corps, Uruguay spent in the interior. Lived in a small town and serviced 4 MJA clubs (like FFA)in the surrounding countryside. Ate a lot of red meat and drank a lot of red wine. Nice, kind, considerate and patient people always willing to answer questions and explain what they were doing. Learned a tremendous amount about food and cooking, from the soil to the table. Was a guest for meals in estancias and dirt floor sod ranchos.

Part of our training was an agriculture short course, as well as nutrition, sanitation and food preservation classes.

Cynthia wrote:

You are missing the option for "I love mint jelly, but can't stand lamb."

I noticed that! Count me in that option also.

Welcome Back, BTW.

Richard

Argue with me if you like, but there is no better way to cook lamb than to take a whole lamb, stud it with garlic and tarragon, put a skewer through from back to front (I hesitate to say anus to mouth), place it over hot charcoals on a spit, cook slowly, periodically wiping with a cloth dipped in olive oil until the skin is crackling and then to feast by either picking it or cutting it off the carcas. No sauce, The Greeks, Turks and Bedouins have known it for thousands of years and by heaven, they are right.

Also works with kid. All of which reminds me, I must re-visit Corfu in the near future!!!!!

Best
Rogov

You are not going to see me arguing with ANY of that.

Sounds fabulous.

No argument from me. I think that works with a suckling pig too. It's about as primal as it gets, no?

Argue with me if you like, but there is no better way to cook lamb than to take a whole lamb, stud it with garlic and tarragon, put a skewer through from back to front (I hesitate to say anus to mouth), place it over hot charcoals on a spit, cook slowly, periodically wiping with a cloth dipped in olive oil until the skin is crackling and then to feast by either picking it or cutting it off the carcas. No sauce, The Greeks, Turks and Bedouins have known it for thousands of years and by heaven, they are right.

Also works with kid. All of which reminds me, I must re-visit Corfu in the near future!!!!!

Best
Rogov

I learned in Uruguay to use an old "cot" spring angled over coals. Attaching the splayed open lamb by wire hooks. The fire is kept going at the side and then the coals are shoveled as needed under the lamb. I think the mop was salt, oil, oregano and garlic. At the town picnic held by the group I worked with, we did about 6-7 lambs each year. The money given was used to buy toys for "Reyes" and food for the Saturday lunch program we ran at the elementary school during the winter. I recall having a lamb done in this manner once where orange juice was included in the mop. As I recall, I liked this mop the best.

It was said that if you served a rural Uruguayan chicken, pork, duck, turkey, fish, etc as asked his opinion of the meal he would say: "it was good but it was missing the meat (beef, lamb, or mutton)."

There's a huge difference between home made mint sauce and store bought mint jelly. The latter is a artificially coloured, artificially flavoured sweet goopy gelatinous thing - made primarily for children, I think.

Mint sauce made from mint growing in your own garden can be delicious - it has to be the right type of mint, though (common garden mint in this part of the world) - with the perfect balance of vinegar and sugar and then just the right amount of boiling water. One of the kitchen gadgets I inherited was a mint cutting up roller thing.

As for other combos with lamb - I love it with cooked with rosemary, garlic and a glaze in which red currant jelly is the dominant ingredient.

Argue with me if you like, but there is no better way to cook lamb than to take a whole lamb, stud it with garlic and tarragon, put a skewer through from back to front (I hesitate to say anus to mouth), place it over hot charcoals on a spit, cook slowly, periodically wiping with a cloth dipped in olive oil until the skin is crackling and then to feast by either picking it or cutting it off the carcas. No sauce, The Greeks, Turks and Bedouins have known it for thousands of years and by heaven, they are right.

Also works with kid. All of which reminds me, I must re-visit Corfu in the near future!!!!!

Best
Rogov

I did a kid just like this - as a matter of fact, two of them - for a wine dinner many years ago. (The goat kind, not the child kind).