1 kg of neck or shoulder of lamb, loosely cut; at least 0.5 kg of lamb bones cut into pieces; 1 onion, some celery and leek, greens, salt.
Sauce: 4 buns from the day before, 1 slice of butter, 2 eggs, 1 tbsp flour, grated horseradish.
Cover bone well with chopped onion, vegetables, greens and salt with cold water and bring to a boil. Cook rolled lamb in the boiling broth over low heat for about 2 hours. Strain broth, keep meat warm.
Dice rolls into small cubes and toast lightly in butter. Pour in 1.5 l of the lamb stock and stir until smooth. Beat eggs with flour well and stir into the sauce. Bring to the boil briefly, remove from the heat and stir in the horseradish. Season to taste. Serve meat and sauce with boiled potatoes or ribbon noodles.
With Wilhelm Spatz and his lambs in Ober-Kainsbach near Reichelsheim in the Odenwald
Wilhelm Spatz has kept sheep for more than forty years. Always as a sideline, because the chemist worked 25 years as a farm manager. For many years, he presided over the Odenwald Shepherd Association. Today, as a pensioner, he can devote himself more intensively to his four-legged friends, who are Merino-Land sheep. "I liked the sheep as animals. They are easier to keep in terms of size than cattle, for which you need other and larger barn buildings, sheep you can keep more outdoors."
He does run his sheep farming on an organic basis in species-appropriate husbandry on unfertilized pastures around Ober-Kainsbach. Only Grummet, as the fine hay of the second cut is called, Wilhelm Spatz buys from neighboring farmers. But he is not a member of any of the farming associations. "Getting certified is just too expensive for me."
"I keep fifty Merino land sheep. They have an aseasonal rut, so I can offer lambs all year round," says the sheep farmer from Ober-Kainsbach in the Odenwald. "Families have become smaller, stock-keeping has changed," observes Wilhelm Spatz, "people cook differently than they used to, more as a special event, called an event in new German." That's why, Wilhelm Spatz says, he sells very few whole lambs, but mostly cuts. "You can also buy a kilo of lamb from me; the most popular are still the chops and legs." It is not always easy, he says, to convince people that the other, less familiar cuts, such as shoulder or neck, can also be made delicious. Even the unassuming breast can be made into something tasty, especially on the grill. Whole lambs can be bought in Ober-Kainsbach for 7.50 € per kilo. They are then four, five months old, have already eaten grass and weigh around eighteen to twenty kilograms.
"The innards of the lambs are something really great," Wilhelm Spatz enthuses, "I also offer cured and smoked lamb tongues." The market leader also appreciates these very much, as well as the delicate, infinitely tender liver of the lambs, and the fine sweetbreads even more! Why, however, the no less delicious kidneys are not so popular, Spatz does not know.
He runs a restaurant together with his wife Wilma, the "Landgasthof zum Königsbrunnen". In addition to lamb, there are eight varieties of sausages made from the meat of their own animals. Without artificial additives and without pork fat. Also ham. You can try them in the form of the shepherd's plate. Sometimes a whole lamb is put on the barbecue spit and very tasty, lightly smoked sausages made of lamb meat are roasted. No less popular are the homemade cakes.
Sheep farm and "Landgasthof zum Königsbrunnen"
Wilhelm and Wilma Spatz
Valley Street 51
64385 Reichelsheim-Ober-Kainsbach (Odenwald)
Tel. 06164-2118, Fax: 2181
from Waldemar Thomas