Friday morning was devoted to slaughtering an eleven-month-old ram lamb. And this morning we butchered it into a myriad of tasty cuts, reserving one leg to cure in the Norwegian fashion of a Fenalår. This will be the second lamb ham cured over the years. The first was left in the salt too long and yielded a rock-hard piece of salt with a somewhat muttony flavor profile. Yet there are high hopes this one yields a more palatable result.

One of the culinary pleasures of the slaughter is fresh offal. On the ten-point scale of adventurous eating I routinely score a 7.5. So, here is my offally good lamb pâté recipe as a challenge. Keep in mind that the amounts, to my way of cooking, are mere guides. You know what to do.

Ingredients

• Lamb: trim 2 kidneys, 2 testicles, 1 liver, and 1 heart. Add 1 pound of ground pork and a quarter minced onion.
• Grind twice. The first with a medium grind and the second with a fine grind.
• Add two eggs, four minced cloves of garlic, a twist or two of nutmeg, a ¼ tsp each of ground ginger, ground clove, and red pepper flakes. Measure out a ¼ cup of bourbon and add to the mix. Feel free, depending on the time of day, to measure out more for yourself.
• Mix thoroughly and fill up ramekins to a ¼ inch below the top. Place in a roasting pan and fill with water to ½ way up the ramekins. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour and half.
• Remove from the oven (I then place a pat of butter on top of each) and place the individual containers on a towel to cool. Refrigerate for at least a day. Freeze any that you won’t eat within 5 days.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Reading this weekend: Watching For The Wind (J. Edinger) and Book of Tripe and gizzards, kidneys, feet, brains and all the rest (S. Reynaud)

Follow