Slow: Food Worth Taking Time Over

Gizzi Erskine · Slow: Food Worth Taking Time Over

The original incarnation of this stew would have used mutton in place of lamb, so if you can find it, please don't hesitate to use that instead. To get the best out of mutton, you have to cook it really slowly, so this is the perfect recipe for it, but lamb neck also works well, and the stew benefits from the extra fat you find in younger lamb. The first recipes for hotpot can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century, when few people would have had their own oven, so it's likely that this was cooked in clay pots in the communal bread oven as it cooled. Despite this dish's rustic origins, this recipe takes the cheaper cuts of lamb and transforms them into something really rather beautiful.