It was the last day of the State 4-H Fat Stock Show in Wichita, Kansas. Joyce Livingston, the popular host of “Women’s World” and “The Joyce Livingston Show” on Channel 12, was interviewing 4-H members whose market lambs were going to be sold. Lisa, one of Jerri’s nieces, was about to have a brief but memorable television interview with Joyce Livingston.
The show was limited to 4-H members, but not all of them lived on sheep farms. As Lisa explained, “A lot of kids that showed lambs at the fair didn’t raise sheep like we did. They would buy one or two lambs when they were really young, and would feed and raise them until it was time to show them at the fair. So for those kids, the lambs were more like pets, per se, than they were for us. Our lambs were just in with all of our other sheep on the farm, so we never really spent time with them like the other kids did, so we weren’t nearly as attached to them.”
There were about fifty lambs judged high enough to be in the auction that year, so the television interviews were short, basically the name of the 4-H member, where he or she was from and the name of the animal. If it was something like “Fluffy” or “Lambchop”, Joyce Livingston might comment or ask another question.
Lisa tells how her interview went: “She got to me; I think she asked my name and where I was from, and then she asked me what my lamb’s name was. I just looked at her, probably blankly, and said ‘It doesn’t have a name.’ I remember she looked a little surprised, but then I really don’t remember what she said after that.”
Having worked long ago in radio broadcasting, I’ll bet she didn’t say much more. When you find yourself starting to dig yourself into a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging. What could she say? “You heartless girl. Have you no love for an innocent lamb?” After all, it was a meat animal auction, and people in Kansas like lamb on the table almost as much as a good steak. As an experienced TV host, she probably said “Thank you” and moved on to the next lamb and its owner.
Here is a photo of Lisa taken at that auction with her lamb. Like her sisters, Lisa helped raise hundreds of sheep, but this lamb was one she had picked to show. She had worked with it so it was accustomed to her and groomed it for the competition. When her lamb was judged good enough to sell at the Fat Stock Show, she earned some money to help pay her way through college. The girl in the picture is now a banker.
This is a recipe by Phyllis, Lisa’s mother, from The Krehbiel Family Cookbook. She and her husband, Theron, raised prize-winning lambs and helped guide their four daughters through 4-H projects showing lambs at county and state fairs. As you might expect, Phyllis knew how to turn some of those lambs into delicious dinners.
INGREDIENTS:
6 lb. leg of lamb
2–4 medium onions
2–4 medium carrots
2 1/4 cups red burgundy, divided
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. salt
6 whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
PROCEDURE:
Scrape or peel the carrots and remove the outer skin of the onions along with the stem and root ends. Cut the vegetables into large pieces.
Wipe the leg of lamb with damp paper towels and trim excess fat from it. Set the meat in a 13 x 9 x 2” glass baking dish with the carrots and onions. In a four cup measure, combine two cups of wine with the vinegar, salt, black pepper and bay leaves to make the marinade. Pour it over the meat. Cover with foil or plastic wrap. Refrigerate twenty-four hours, turning the meat occasionally.
Preheat the oven to 400º. Take the lamb from the marinade and allow it to drain. Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Reserve the marinade.
Remove the paper from two cloves of garlic and cut them into slivers. With a sharp narrow-bladed knife make several slits on the lamb and insert the garlic slivers. Place the lamb fat side up in a shallow roasting pan.
Roast uncovered for twenty minutes, then baste the meat with three tablespoons of marinade. Place the carrots and onions around the meat. Continue to roast, basting every ten minutes for about an hour and forty minutes or until the meat registers 165º on an instant read thermometer for medium rare. Remove the meat to a heated serving platter and let it rest while you make the sauce.
Add a half cup of water and a quarter cup of burgundy to the drippings. Bring the liquid to a boil, scraping the drippings from from the bottom of the pan. Simmer for a few minutes to reduce the volume slightly. Strain the sauce into a small bowl or server. Let it stand for two or three minutes. Then serve it with the thinly sliced meat.
NOTES: Burgundy is the name reserved for wines made mainly from Pinot Noir grapes in Burgundy, a famous wine region in France. Some very good Pinot Noir wines are being made in California, Oregon and Chile and other places from Austria to Australia. If you have a Pinot Noir wine you enjoy drinking, use that to cook your leg of lamb.
Mint jelly is traditionally served with roast lamb, but cranberry sauce also goes well with it. Add a green salad, mashed potatoes and bread or dinner rolls , and you will be putting a gourmet dinner on your table.
Courage in the Kitchen 