Cook this
The working recipe — the Market List, the Method, and where it lives or dies
I
Origin
Basilicata
II
Description
Lamb cooked in an earthenware pot (cutturieddhu) — the ancient Lucano technique of sealing a whole lamb or lamb pieces with vegetables, herbs and water in a terracotta vessel and cooking over embers or in a stone oven until the lamb is falling from the bone. The seal of the pot traps all steam and the lamb cooks in its own juices and fat, creating an intensely flavoured braising liquid that is itself the sauce.
III
The Thread
—Lamb sealed in clay or parchment and cooked until falling apart — the same sealed-steam principle of trapping the lamb's own juices Greek
—Lamb braised in a sealed tagine — the terracotta vessel and sealed cooking are structurally identical Moroccan
—Whole animal sealed in clay and baked until the juices create a self-basting environment — the same sealed steam-cooking principle Chinese
IV
Flavour Context
Intensely lamby, herbal, gelatinous from the collagen; the sealed pot concentrates all flavour into an extraordinary braising liquid; the first moment of steam at the table is the dish — ancient cooking technique of spectacular simplicity
Pillars V — VII
The full training pages are part of membership.
Quality hierarchy, sensory tests, and where the dish lives or dies — on every entry in the Library.
Enter · from $49 a year