Lamb with Salted Wine Sauce

Juicy lamb, sweet onions, and a quite salty but well-balanced sauce

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City/Region: Huns

Time Period: 5th Century

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Attila the Hun was a man born into the world to shake the nations. He was the scourge of the Roman Empire, a destroyer of cities, and quite the picky eater. It was said that, when served a dinner that consisted of many luxurious dishes, “Attila ate nothing but meat on a wooden trencher.” While no direct recipes from Attila’s household exist, this 5th century recipe for a kind of pot roast style lamb with salted wine sauce probably comes pretty close, no pillaging required.

“Mutton is suitable and can be eaten frequently, both with a simple sauce and in roasting it, keeping it far away from the flame. Indeed, if it is near the fire, the meat will be burned on the outside and the inside will remain raw, and this causes more harm than good. However, roast it from afar and for a long time, so that the result is almost as if it were steamed, as it roasts, season it with salt mixed with wine, brushed on with a feather.”

— De Observatione Ciborum by Anthimus

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Ingredients:

• 2 pounds (1 kg) mutton or lamb, leg is best
• 2 cups (475 ml) sweet white wine
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small head of garlic, cloves peeled but whole
• 1-2 large onions, sliced, or a mix of sliced onions and pearl onions
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) honey or sapa*
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons long pepper*, crushed, or black pepper

*See notes below.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 335°F (170°C).
2. Mix the salt into the wine.
3. Rub the lamb with olive oil (you likely won’t use all of it), then baste the lamb with the salted wine. If you want to be extra authentic, you can use a sterilized feather for this, but a brush holds up better and does a better job.
4. Line the bottom of a large pot with the onions and garlic, then set the meat on top. Stick some of the garlic cloves into the meat if desired.
5. Mix the honey or sapa, vinegar, any leftover oil, and the pepper into the unused portion of the salted wine and pour over the lamb.
6. Cover the pot and place in the oven for 1 hour or until the meat reaches 140°F (60°C).
7. Baste the lamb again with the juices in the pot, then return to the oven, uncovered, for 15 minutes to brown the meat a bit.
8. Take the lamb out of the oven, baste it one more time, remove it from the pot, and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing.
9. While the meat rests, take the garlic cloves out of the pot and chop them up, then put them and the rest of the juices from the pot in a saucepan over medium heat and let it simmer. It will thicken a bit, and this is the time to taste and add more pepper or sapa if desired.
10. Slice the lamb and plate it with the onions. Serve it forth with the sauce on the side for dipping.

Notes

• Saba is a 1/3 reduction of grape must and is sweet and delicious. It can be expensive, so you can reduce some grape juice instead. It won't be as complex as saba, but it will work just fine.
• Long pepper is hotter than black pepper and has a more aromatic, almost flowery quality to it that's wonderful.
• Link to saba: https://amzn.to/3JGkbyK
• Link to long pepper: https://amzn.to/3ui5j5L

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