Lamb Filling

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp butter
• a few drops onion juice
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup lamb stock
• salt
• paprika
• curry powder
• 2/3 cup cold roast lamb

Method

Melt the butter over moderate heat until it foams and the milk solids brown — you're after a hazelnut colour and nutty aroma, roughly two to three minutes. A few drops of onion juice stirred in at this point will sharpen the base without adding moisture. This is a browning step that builds flavour depth before you make your sauce-making roux.

Dust the flour over the butter and stir constantly for two minutes, breaking up lumps as they form. The flour should toast slightly and darken to a light tan — you're cooking out the raw grain taste. Don't let it catch on the pan bottom; this is a blonde roux, not a brown one, because the lamb stock will do most of the flavour work. Pour the cold stock in a thin stream whilst whisking hard. The cold liquid hitting the hot roux without lumping is the whole point of constant agitation here — starch granules hydrate cleanly when you don't let them clump. Keep stirring for another minute once it's combined.

The sauce will thin slightly as the starch fully hydrates. Taste it. Season aggressively with salt first — this pulls out the lamb's natural umami — then add paprika and curry powder in measured amounts. Start with half a teaspoon of each, stir, taste. A 1896 recipe using "curry powder" was likely reaching for a mild British blend; modern curry powders are hotter, so adjust downwards if you're using shop-bought. The spice should complement, not dominate, the underlying stock.

Divide the sauce in half now. Into one half, fold the cold roast lamb cut into dice no larger than five millimetres — small pieces warm through quickly without overcooking. The second half stays loose. If you find it's thickened too much on standing, thin it with a touch more warmed stock to a coating consistency.

Pour the seasoned sauce around the rissoles just before service. The unseasoned half becomes your serving sauce — passed separately or drizzled around the plate. This split method was a practical one: it let the cook adjust the second sauce's strength to the table's appetite without compromising the filling's flavour balance.