7-hour leg of lamb confit in a wood-fired oven

Preparation stages

1. In a casserole dish, brown the leg in a little oil on all sides. Drizzle with cognac and flambé.

2. Place the leg without the fat in another cast-iron casserole dish with a reserve of water on the lid, or in a terracotta terrine.

3. Surround the meat with the unpeeled garlic and rosemary.

4. Pour the Chablis over the top.

5. Add the vegetables and tomato purée.

6. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Close the casserole by lutage. Stuffing consists of sealing the lid with an airtight seal so that the casserole cooks steaming hot. To make this seal, also known as dead paste, you can mix water, flour and coarse salt, or simply use leftover bread dough. Shape it into a sausage and carefully place it on the edge of the casserole dish to seal it to the lid.

8. Place in a wood-fired oven with all the embers and ashes removed at a maximum temperature of 170°C. Leave the leg to marinate for 4 to 5 hours before removing the meat from the oven. The meat is now so tender and melt-in-the-mouth that you can serve it with a spoon!

The 7 o’clock leg of lamb is a very old dish which dates back to the Romans, even if the Auvergnats, Lyonnais and Bordelais claim it too!

One thing is certain: this slow cooking at a low temperature is a very tasty way of making the most of the heat accumulated in a wood-fired oven.

The 7 o’clock leg is called this because the old-timers let it simmer all day or all night in the baker’s oven, or on the corner of the wood-burning cooker.

Today, thanks to its low vault andexceptional thermal inertia of Grand-Mère ovens4 to 5 hours cooking time is all you need…