Re: Lamb question

If some of you happen to watch the "Top Chef" TV show (on Bravo

>channel in the US), you will have noticed (well, I did ;) that on

Nope, sorry, because I live on the other side of the atlantic. However, that doesn't stop me having a opinion on how to cook lamb.

I live in France and I have to say that I find the prevailing fashion where I live of serving roast lamb as rare as "blue" beef (with the meat still having the texture and flavour of raw meat, barely warm) to result in something inedible. However I do like my roast leg of lamb still to have a pink colour near the bone, and for the juices to run reddish rather than golden, especially for french dishes, I tend to cook english lamb dishes slightly longer as that's the habit in the UK and with somewhat older lamb, I feel it suits it better.

That said, there are many, many dishes that I cook where my lamb is cooked till very very tender, falling off the bone, and find that delicious too.

In fact I'd say that lamb has a completely diffierent character depending upon how you cook it. But I hesitate (as do the others here) to say "this is right" or "that is better"

As for wines. The simpler the lamb is cooked, the cleaner and more austere the wine should be, in my view. So for a plain roast leg of lamb I find the perfect complement is a Bordeaux from the Medoc. If the lamb is stuffed or braised till just cooked, then I want my wine to be a bit fuller too, and would look to a wine with a greater Merlot content, a st Emilion or Pomerol, or a top Bergerac. If I were serving a long slow braise, with the meat falling off the bone, then I'd look to yet a fuller wine, and might even think in terms of an old Malbec, like a 15 year old Cahors from a top grower.

As for the ultimate in simple... grilled lamb chops, then I love a gorgeous Bergerac.

My question: is all of "haute cuisine" in agreement on that >point, or is there at least some faction that holds that longer cooking >is better for lamb?

And my answer is that I care very little what Haute cuisine says or does. I don't really care where they are going, I will continue to eat and drink as it pleases me.

And season's greetings to you.

Reply to
Ian Hoare
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