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Sauce Speciale a l'Ail pour GigotGarlic Sauce for Roast Lamb
March 8, 2021 | Updated April 4, 2023 | Laura
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✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽
Julia Child Recipe 167 | 361 recipes to go!
✽ Garlic Sauce for Roast Lamb [Sauce Spéciale à l’Ail pour Gigot], p. 334
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✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.
✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)
The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.
Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.
What you will find on my blog is:
✽ Butter Count & Cost Total
✽ Recipe Rating
✽ Answers to Questions about Recipe
✽ Fun Facts about Recipe or an Ingredient Used
✽ The Recipe Process
✽ Step-by-Step and Final Photos of Recipe
I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!
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Butter Count & Cost: Garlic Sauce
✽ Butter Count: +2 TB
✽ Cost: $41.33 [~$4.59 per serving]
Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!
→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!
Garlic always improves a dish.
Some people may have made this recipe with the first leg of lamb, but I always like to make things harder than they have to be apparently.
The first leg of lamb recipe included a very simple sauce that was made with the pan drippings from the lamb roasting pan. This garlic sauce also calls for the pan drippings. To make both of these sauces as written, I must use all the pan drippings for both recipes. That led me to making an entirely new leg of lamb just to make some sauce.
I'm not too mad about it though. Lamb is delicious.
Julia Child's Garlic Sauce for Lamb: Rating
✽ Laura's Rating: 8
✽ Brian's Rating: 8
This was a great sauce. Prior to cooking from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I probably would've said that an entire head of garlic for one bowl of sauce is wayyy too much. Of course, that's not true. Julia knows exactly what she is doing.
This sauce was much better than the sauce that is made with the original recipe. It provides more depth to the recipe and adds just a nice hint of garlic to the lamb.
As for the leg of lamb, it turned out just as good as it did last time. Though, despite cooking it for the exact same amount of time (12 minutes per pound), this one was more on the medium side than the rare side. I have one more bone-in leg of lamb to make so hopefully I can nail the timing down just right.
Garlic Sauce for Leg of Lamb: Questions
✽ Is this sauce super garlicky with a whole head of garlic?
To my surprise, it really isn't that garlicky at all!
Within uncooked garlic cells, there is a molecule called alliin. Outside the cell walls, there is an enzyme called alliinase. When enzymes lock into molecules, they are can cause the molecule to undergo chemical reactions.
When you cut open a garlic clove, the cell walls are broken, and alliinase comes in contact with the alliin. Lots of chemical reactions begin to occur. One of those reactions produces garlic's smell and strong taste.
However, when garlic is simmered (or roasted), the heat actually turns the alliin into a different molecule before it comes in contact with the alliinase. This makes the garlic have an almost sweet flavor!
Therefore, cooked garlic is not as pungent as raw garlic.
✽ What is the key to this recipe?
Well this answer is just my opinion, but I do believe it is the stuff stuck at the bottom of the roasting pan.
After cooking the lamb, make sure to degalze that roasting pan scraping up all that goodness stuck to the bottom. That all gets strained into the sauce which adds so much savoriness to it!
✽ What sides go with lamb?
In addition to this delicious garlic sauce, serve lamb with buttered green beans and potatoes! Good potato options include garlic mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, and potatoes sauteed in butter. As for wine, go for a red wine when serving lamb.
Looking for more Julia Child lamb recipes to read about?
→ Check out all of the meat recipes that I've completed so far!
Fun Facts about Garlic
*Find these facts plus lots more on Basta Pasta.*
✽ How much garlic does a person eat every year?
The average person eats 2 pounds of garlic each year! Two pounds of garlic equals about 300 cloves.
✽ What genus does garlic belong to?
Garlic belongs to the genus Allium. It is related to the onion, shallot, chive, and leek.
✽ What country grows the most garlic?
China grows about 66% of all the world's garlic. That's about 46 billion pounds of garlic every year!
How to Make Garlic Sauce for Roast Lamb
✽ Step 1: Boil Garlic
First things first, get an entire head of garlic and break it up. Don't even for a second think, "Hmm.. an entire head is too much for me." It's not too much for you. Trust me.
Julia always instructs to boil the unpeeled garlic for 30 seconds to help get those pesky skins off.
Then the peeled garlic cloves go into some cold water and are brought to a boil. Julia doesn't specifically say why this step is included, but I think this helps tone down the strong flavor of the garlic. Don't skip this step or you may regret it later..
✽ Step 2: Simmer Garlic & Rice
The next thing on the agenda is to simmer milk, seasonings, rice, and the garlic.
It may be tempting to turn your back on this pot while it's cooking but please don't. I had to add quite a bit more milk during the entire process to prevent it from scorching. After the simmering, it should look something like this:
✽ Step 3: Add Stock & Purée
A cup of beef stock is stirred in, and it all goes for a whirl in the blender.
CAUTION- hot stuff in a blender= bad news bears. I have a large scar on my forearm reminding me to be careful. Give it a second to cool off some, go slow, and cover your blender with a dish towel. This should catch anything that may splurt out.
✽ Step 4: Strain in Roasting Juices
Lastly, the leg of lamb pan is deglazed with a couple tablespoons of water. All that coagulated goodness is strained into the garlic sauce.
After the lamb rests half an hour, it's ready to be carved and be served alongside the garlic sauce!
*This blog, Laura The Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.
Category: Julia Child, Vegetables Cuisine: French
Keywords: garlic sauce for lamb recipe, sauce for leg of lamb, sauce for lamb roast, julia child leg of lamb recipe, french leg of lamb
✽ Did you make this recipe too?
→ Let me know by leaving a comment below and sharing on Instagram. Tag @laurathegastronaut and hashtag it #laurathegastronaut.
More Lamb Recipes:
✽ Pork and Herb Stuffing (leg of lamb stuffed with a delicious pork and herb stuffing)
✽ Gigot a la Moutarde (leg of lamb coated in mustard)
✽ Roast Leg of Lamb (you can't go wrong with a perfectly roasted leg of lamb)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child meat recipes!
✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link).
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.
✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!
Bon appétit!
March 8, 2021 by Laura Ehlers
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