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By Root 989 0

south. This peculiar prejudice appears to be a “class” thing; certainly it has nothing to do with the range wars out west. The South’s better-educated, more aristocratic families have always eaten lamb, indeed since Colonial days. Only the hardscrabble folk and those descended from them eschew it. Fortunately, Walter Royal, a gifted southern chef whom I once profiled for Food & Wine, appreciates the merits of lamb and does it proud with a peppery field pea relish. The recipes here are adapted from those that accompanied my article.

4 large garlic cloves, finely minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried leaf rosemary, crumbled

½ teaspoon coarse or kosher salt

½ teaspoon hot paprika

¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, crushed

¼ teaspoon black pepper

One 8-rib rack of lamb (about 3 pounds; have the butcher “french” the rib ends)

1 tablespoon fruity olive oil

Field Pea Relish

1. Combine the garlic, rosemary, salt, paprika, crushed pepper flakes, and black pepper in a small bowl, then rub all over the lamb. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or better yet, overnight.

2. Remove the lamb from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350° F.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over moderately high heat for 1 minute. Place the lamb in the skillet fat side down, and sear for about 2 minutes. Turn, browning the meaty ends of lamb, allowing 2 to 3 minutes for each.

4. Transfer the lamb to an ungreased large shallow roasting pan, standing it on its rib ends so the fat side is up. Roast uncovered on the middle oven shelf for 20 to 25 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer, inserted in the meatiest part of the lamb, not touching bone, registers 130° F. Note: The lamb will be rare; for medium-rare, roast 5 minutes longer or until the thermometer reaches 135° F. to 140° F. But roast no further, please.

5. Remove the lamb from the oven and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes to allow the juices to settle.

6. Carve the lamb by cutting down between the ribs. Allow two chops per person and spoon a generous portion of the field pea relish alongside.

The North seldom tries to fry chicken and this is well; the art cannot be learned north of the line of Mason and Dixon.

—MARK TWAIN

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Heirloom Recipe

SPICED ROUND OF BEEF, FOR CHRISTMAS

Several of the early fund-raiser cookbooks in my collection contain recipes for Spiced Beef, a Christmas classic in many parts of the South. This one is fairly representative.

15 pounds off the round of beef, with the bone in

¼ cup saltpeter

1/3 box kitchen salt (Morton’s)

1 small can ground cinnamon

1 small can ground cloves

1 quart black molasses

1 small can ground allspice

Combine the saltpeter, salt, spices, and molasses, and rub into the beef. Tie beef around with strips of gauze bandage, to hold it in shape. Place in large enamel roaster, cover, and keep in refrigerator (or, if no room, keep on cold porch) one day for each pound. Turn meat daily and baste it several times a day with the mixture and the beef juice which collects. When ready to cook, add enough water to cover, and simmer very slowly for 3 hours; let cool in the water. Trim, then tie fresh gauze strips around it. Serve sliced paper-thin, with eggnog and crackers.

—The Church Mouse Cook Book, compiled by the Women of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Ivy, Virginia, 1964

Recipe contributed by Mrs. Robert T. Phillips, Greenville, South Carolina

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1847

Desperate to cool his feverish patients, an Apalachicola doctor named John Gorrie invents a primitive ice-maker—a forerunner of kitchen iceboxes.

The Carolina Housewife, a collection mainly of Lowcountry recipes and household remedies by Sarah Rutledge, is published. Like Mary Randolph’s Virginia House-wife (1824) and Lettice Bryan’s Kentucky Housewife (1839), it has been reprinted in a facsimile edition (see