This Succulent Meat Takes Its Place in History – and on Passover and Easter Tables

By Erica Marcus, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Apr. 5–A crisp, succulent roast lamb is the most traditional of Easter foods, and its symbolic importance to the holiday is plain even to the nontheologian: Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ, the lamb of God.

Lamb sales spike accordingly. The American Lamb Board estimates that 20 percent of U.S. lamb consumption occurs around Easter, which falls this year on April 16, April 23 for the Eastern Orthodox. Whether the lamb is decorously presented as a boned-out leg or roasted whole on a spit, for many Christians there’s no Easter without it.

Shank bone significance

Lamb is also central to the Jewish Passover, which starts on April 12 this year. The roasted shank bone on the seder plate attests to its primacy in the Exodus story, where the blood of a lamb was the signal for God to “pass over” the homes of the Israelites, sparing their first-born sons from the fate that befell the Egyptians.

Despite its iconic status, however, most American Jews don’t eat lamb for the seder meal. Some scholars have explained this custom by pointing to the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 Common Era. Andrea Lieber, a religion professor at Dickinson College, said, “For the hundreds of years that the temple stood, the Passover celebration was an extremely important festival, and it centered around the sacrificing in the temple of a lamb.”

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, each family’s Paschal lamb was slain on the eve of Passover. After the fatty portions were offered by the priest on the altar, the remaining lamb would be taken away by the family to serve as the centerpiece of the evening’s banquet, a meal that was the precursor to the modern seder.

When the temple was destroyed, the theory goes, it was considered bad form even to allude to the temple sacrifice by eating lamb. Only when the temple was rebuilt would the Jews again roast and eat lamb for Passover.

Other scholars point out, however, that most American Jews are of Ashkenazic, or Eastern European, ancestry, and no one, Jew nor Gentile, ate much lamb in Russia and Poland. Whereas, among the Sephardim – Jews from the Mediterranean and Middle East – lamb was the most popular red meat.

Jewish cooking authority Claudia Roden grew up in Egypt, where her family always ate a cold shoulder of lamb for seder. “All the Sephardic communities ate lamb for Passover,” she said. Her “The Book of Jewish Food” (Knopf) includes not only her family’s recipe, but two Passover lamb stews from Morocco.

Middle Eastern connection

The terrain and climate of the Middle East have always been more hospitable to sheep than to cattle and pigs. And it is in this sheep-centric world, before Christianity, before even Judaism, that a nomadic tribe called the Israelites lived off its flocks and celebrated the birth of the new lambs every spring.

Not much is known about the early Israelites, said Phillip Cunningham, a theology professor at Boston College and executive director of its Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, “but the evidence seems to be that during springtime, there was a festival to celebrate fertility, renewal and prosperity in which the ‘first fruits’ of the harvest were offered to the deity,” whether the first stalks of barley or the first-born male lambs.

This latter offering, Cunningham said, may have had an even earlier antecedent that involved offering a first-born son to the gods. The echo of “this substitution of a lamb to redeem, to take the place of the first-born son can still be seen in the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac.”

These themes – lambs, first-born sons, sacrifice, redemption – all figure prominently in both Passover and Easter narratives.

In the Book of Exodus, after a series of plagues visited upon the Egyptians has failed to convince the pharaoh to let the Israelites go, God tells Moses, “About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die.”

God also instructs each Israelite household to procure an unblemished, 1-year-old male lamb, or kid, and, at an appointed time, kill it. “Moreover,” says God, “they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh that same night … with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” That “is the Lord’s Passover.”

Scholars believe that the Exodus took place somewhere around 1250 Before the Common Era, but they don’t know much about the Passover celebration until the establishment, in Jerusalem, of the Second Temple in the fifth century BCE.

During the so-called “Second Temple period,” not only would the Jews living in Jerusalem partake of the Passover sacrifice there, but Jews from all over the world would make the pilgrimage. One such Jew was Jesus of Nazareth, who went to Jerusalem for what turned out to be the last week of his life.

Though it’s known that Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, it’s not clear if he attended a seder. “In the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke,” Cunningham said, “the last supper is a Passover seder, but in John, the meal seems to be happening the day before Passover.”

Regardless of the timing, Andrea Lieber said, “through the connection with Passover, Christ is definitely identified as the first-born son of God and the sacrificial lamb.” Ultimately, she said, “the Paschal lamb brings the two traditions together, but it also highlights their differences.”

MICHAEL’S ROAST LEG OF LAMB

Restaurant consultant Michael Whiteman, of the Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co., gave us the recipe for this classic garlic-rosemary roast lamb. Whiteman prefers American lamb for any preparation, but especially for this roast.

4 to 6 large sprigs fresh rosemary

4 to 6 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 semi-boned shank-end leg of lamb (5 to 6 pounds)

1. Place rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and oil in food processor and process to a paste. (Or chop fine with very sharp knife.)

2. Place leg, fat side up, on a rack in a low-sided pan. With a paring knife, poke at least a dozen slits into the lamb at various angles, then widen into holes with your index finger. Spread rosemary-garlic mixture onto lamb and push it into the holes. Let sit 3 hours at room temperature.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. For rare lamb, roast until a meat thermometer registers 125 degrees, about an hour. For medium-rare: 130 degrees; medium: 140 degrees; well-done: 150.

4. Let the lamb rest at least 15 minutes, covered loosely with foil, before carving. Meanwhile, pour off any accumulated juices, skim off the fat, and serve with lamb. Makes 8 servings.

EASTER LAMB ON A BED OF SCALLION GREENS

This unusual recipe is adapted from Diane Kochilas’ masterful “The Glorious Foods of Greece” (Morrow). The use of scallion greens, Kochilas writes, is very common in northern Greece. She found this recipe in Orma, in central Macedonia.

4 pounds scallions

1 (4-pound) boned, rolled leg of lamb

Salt and pepper to taste

2/3 cup oil

2 to 3 tablespoons sweet paprika

2 cups freshly chopped mint

1. Prepare the scallions: Cut off the white, bottom portion and save for another use. Trim the tops of the greens. Cut the scallions into 1-inch pieces. If they are dirty, soak in successive quantities of cold water and drain.

2. Rinse meat and pat dry. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Heat 1/2 cup oil in a large Dutch oven over medium, add meat and sear until browned on all sides. Remove meat and pour out all but a film of oil.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add scallions to pan with about 1/2 cup of water. Turn heat to high, cover pan and cook until scallions start to wilt. Remove cover and add salt, pepper and paprika. Cook, stirring frequently, until scallions are limp.

3. Turn off heat and add mint to scallions, stirring until well mixed. Nestle lamb into the bed of greens and add a little water if mixture is dry. Cover pot and place in oven. From time to time, check that pot is not getting too dry; if it is, add some water.

4. For a traditional pot-roasted lamb, cook until the meat is very tender when pierced by a knife, at least 2 hours. For a pink center, cook about 1 1/2 hours, or until a thermometer registers about 130 degrees. When the meat is done, remove from the pot and let it rest for at least 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, spread greens on a warmed platter. Slice the lamb and place on platter. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

STEAM-SAUTEED ASPARAGUS

There’s a limit to how much steamed asparagus you can make at one time. This is a good recipe for making asparagus for a crowd.

4 pounds asparagus

Salt and pepper

Butter or extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup chopped chives

1. Cut the dry bottoms off asparagus ( 1/4 to 1/2 inch, depending on how dry they are), and using a vegetable peeler, peel the bottom inch or two of the spears. Cut spears diagonally into 1 1/2-inch-long pieces.

2. Pour enough water (about 1/3 cup) into a very large (14-inch), tightly lidded skillet to almost cover the bottom. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil or butter, the asparagus and a good amount of salt. Cover and place over high heat. When you see steam escaping, after 3 to 5 minutes, turn heat to medium and shake the pan gently from time to time. After about 2 minutes, uncover the pan. Asparagus should be almost done. (If it isn’t, cover pan again and continue to steam.) Turn heat to high and cook until water is evaporated and asparagus spears are nicely coated with oil or butter. Turn off heat. Taste and add salt, if desired, pepper and chives. Mix and serve immediately. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

LEMON-THYME ROAST POTATOES

2 large lemons

4 pounds small new potatoes (or red-skinned or Yukon gold potatoes cut into 1-inch chunks)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Sprigs of fresh thyme

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the ends off each lemon, cut in half, lengthwise. With the flat (pulp) side of each half down on the cutting board, cut lengthwise once, and then crosswise into thin slices.

2. Place potatoes in roasting pan large enough to accommodate them in 1 layer. Strew lemon slices over potatoes, then pour in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Season liberally with salt and pepper. With your hands, or a spatula, mix contents of pan so they are well integrated. Place sprigs of fresh thyme on top of potatoes and bake until potatoes are tender and browned in spots, about an hour. Makes 8 servings.

SHEEP SPEAK

Lamb is meat from a sheep less than a year old, though most are slaughtered at 6 to 8 months. Between 1 and 2 years, the sheep’s meat is known as yearling mutton; after 2 years, it’s mutton.

America produces about 200 million pounds of lamb a year, according to the American Lamb Board. That represents about 65 percent of consumption; the rest is imported principally from New Zealand and Australia. American sheep are primarily fed grain, which gives them a milder flavor than their grass-fed New Zealand counterparts. “The New Zealand lambs tend to run small,” said Fairway Market’s head butcher, Ray Venezia. “Because they’re grass-fed, they’re leaner and gamier. Australian lamb, he said, “is closer to American in taste.”

Like beef, lamb is inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and can be graded prime, choice or select. But because lamb has such a distinctive flavor, Venezia said, the difference between prime and choice is probably not worth paying for.

When he’s cooking for more than four people, Venezia always gravitates toward a leg. “The racks are nice,” he said, “but each of those rib chops has about as much meat as a lollipop.”

A whole leg of lamb weighs 8 to 10 pounds, and it can be subdivided into the shank (ankle) half and the butt (hip) half. People are often nervous about carving a whole leg of lamb, Venezia said, and rightly so. “The hip bone runs up and down, making it very hard to slice.” He advises customers to buy a semi-boneless leg, in which only the shank bone remains. For smaller groups, he recommends buying the shank half because “it preserves the look of the leg. A butt roast just looks like a piece of meat.”

– ERICA MARCUS

WORDS OF THE SPRING SEASON

You say Easter; I say Pasqua.

English is one of the few languages in which the connection between Passover and Easter isn’t made linguistically. Our “Easter” and the German “Ostern” may come from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, who is known as Estre.

In most other languages, the name of the Christian holiday is based on the ancient Greek Pascha, an adaptation of the Hebrew Pesach, or Passover.

Afrikaans: Paasfees

Catalan: Pasqua

Danish: PÃ¥ske

Dutch: Pasen

Esperanto: Pasko

Finnish: Pääsiäinen

French: Pâques

Greek: Paskha

Icelandic: Paskar

Indonesian: Paskah

Italian: Pasqua

Irish: Caisg

Latin: Pascha or Festa Paschalia

Norwegian: PÃ¥ske

Portuguese: Pascoa

Spanish: Pascua

Swedish: PÃ¥sk

Turkish: Paskalya

Welsh: Pasg

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Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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