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Lamb's Tail Pie

Pot Meals

Lamb's tails, soaked in boiling water, skinned and baked in a crust with parsley. Made at lambing time when the tails are docked.


Lamb's are now commonly docked using a rubber band which cuts off the blood supply, causing the tail to fall off, so that fresh, plump, tails are not easy to obtain.



Original Receipt from 'Pot-luck; or, The British home cookery book' by May Byron (Byron 1914)

38. LAMBS' TAIL PIE (Kent) This is a very old Kentish pie. In spring, when the lambs' tails are cut, these are collected. About half the tail, the thicker end, is used. It is flayed and jointed: generally about two dozen tails are used in making an ordinary-sized pie. Of course the crust is made in the usual way.

(I have been told that the soft bones in the tails when cooked are like gelatine.)




Original Receipt from The 'Western Gazette' - Friday 27 May 1938

LAMB-TAIL PIE.
Strip sufficient lambs'-tails to fill a large pie-dish. Cover with cold water, add one teaspoonful of salt, one blade of mace, three peppercorns, one tablespoonful of sago, one very small onion, and simmer gently in a saucepan for one hour, or until the tails show signs of jellying. Take out the tails and put into a pie-dish. Thicken the liquid with one tablespoonful of white flour, mixed to a smooth paste with cold water, and pour sufficient over the tails in the pie-dish to reach to within half-an - inch of the brim of the dish. Cover with dripping short-crust, bake in a hot oven, and serve piping hot with mashed potatoes and green peas cooked in reserved liquid. Very good cold, served with salad.



See: Lamb's Ears




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