Help with this lamb dish - doubling the recipe and accompaniements

[OrangeSunset]

I'm thinking of making this lamb dish for friends at the weekend - it has amazing reviews.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1094/sevenhour-lamb

I'd need to make double - one reviewer said she did that in a huge pot and cooking time was the same. I'd probably have to do 2 pots - will this mean I need to increase the cooking time?! More metal in the oven.....?!

Also what kind of starchy side would be good - dauphinois?

It shouldn't - test it after 5 hours and see if its not resisting the knife, if its ok give it another couple of hours, if its not cooked at 5 hours give it another half hour, check then give it 2 more hours.

I would do baked potatoes, if your going to have the oven on for 7 hours you may as well take advantage

Thanks, I hadn't thought of baked potatoes.

clicky link

I've made this OP, several times, it is a great, easy recipe.

You're doing 2 legs? How many are you serving? I would do it in 2 separate pots, I use my largest pot for this recipe and couldn't fit another leg in. I wouldn't add to the cooking time though, don't normally adjust depending on the amount of stuff in the oven?

I buy salt marsh lamb from the local butchers, cost about £27 per leg.

I have served it with daphinoise but it is really rich and oily that it probably isn't the best side, the cream probably doesn't go that well... But I do love an excuse for dauphinoise & noone's grumbled. Jacket pots would go better, but depends how luxurious you're looking to go, JPs always feel very 'Monday night' to me.

I have also served with just green beans and on one occasion with roasted veg (peppers, courgettes, onions etc).

I do a very similar recipe, but put it in a baking tray covered with a double layer of foil, which might be an option if you want to double the quantities.

Flageolet or cannellini beans are a nice accompaniment, either boiled and dressed with oil, garlic and vinegar, or made into a mash.

It's for 10, well 9 really as I don't eat meat. Going from the recipe I'm thinking 2 x 2.5kg legs?

Cannellini beans mash is a great idea, thanks!

Any idea of quants for 10 servings of bean mash?

Nigella has a recipe for 2 that uses 3 cans of beans!!

[ www.nigella.com/recipes/white-bean-mash ]

I usually cook an entire 500g packet for 5, so probably a kilo of dried beans would do it (at that quantity, you might as well cook from dried).

As for the meat, I think that would be plenty. I did one 2kg leg for 5 the other day, and we had quite a bit left over, so see if you can get some small(er) ones. Mind you, it depends how hungry your guests are...

With oven cooking you base time on the weight of the meat. So a 2kg joint of meat will take twice as long as 2 1kg joints of meat, even though the total weight is the same. Having said that, with slow cooking the weight of the meat is largely irrelevant.

Right, am going with cannelloni bean mash and green beans.

Sorry about the links - can't seem to work out how to do them on my phone

So a 2kg joint of meat will take twice as long as 2 1kg joints of meat

No it wont, if you put two chickens in an oven they don't take twice as long as 1 chicken.

The time lengthens for bigger joints because of size and time for the heat to penetrate, doneness depends on the internal temperature of the meat . To get medium well lamb it needs to be at 62 degrees C at the centre.

Read it again, cdtaylornats - I'm saying exactly what you've just said. A single 2kg joint of meat will take twice as long as two 1kg joints. Of course 2 chickens don't take any longer than one chicken -because each chicken will cook at the same time.

Sorry lougle I read it backwards

No problem

Went to buy the lamb today and it was over £50 !
The very lovely butcher kindly pointed my in the direction of pork shoulder - enough for 10 at half the price. Sticking with beans as a side - a tomato and butter bean stew.

Yep, that's what it would cost at my butchers too.

Will you do a 'pulled pork' type recipe then?

Keep the lamb recipe for when you are a group of 6 people you really really like

I've got a slow roast recipe from the BBC site - a John Torode recipe. It's been in the fridge overnight smothered in a garlic/paprika/lemon juice marinade, and will get 5 hours in the oven later.

Serving with the butter bean stew and green beans.

Sticking with my original puddings of chocolate mousse and lemon posset - possibly way too rich but there is always the option of very good coffee instead .

Will def try the lamb recipe another time.