Classic Book of the Month - Supper of the Lamb

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Tuesday, April 5th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: our Classic Book of the Month.

Resurrection Sunday is less than two weeks away, and Emily Whitten’s found a book that challenges Christians to think more deeply about our celebrations.

WHITTEN: This is actually so good. This is super good. I love this so much.

EMILY WHITTEN, REPORTER: Welcome to the Rexer family dinner table. On March 26th, my husband, two girls, and I joined the Rexer family of seven for supper at their home in Nashville. And not just any supper, but one inspired by our Classic Book of the Month for April: The Supper of the Lamb—a 1969 cookbook by Robert Farrar Capon.

After our meal, we stayed at the table to savor some of Capon’s writing. Here’s dad Brent Rexer reading from chapter 3.

REXER: Lamb for Eight Persons Four Times is not simply a recipe. It is a way of life. It does indeed produce 32 servings from a single leg of lamb, but at the same time, it opens the door to a school of cooking that has produced some of the greatest dishes in the world.

In the book’s first three pages, Capon offers an ingredient list for four lamb supper recipes—each for 8 people. He takes most of The Supper of the Lamb’s 268 pages to finish the instructions for those recipes. But it’s much more than a cookbook. Capon devotes chapters to practical cooking advice, theological reflection, and his philosophy of cooking—looking back to older generations.

REXER: Never serve anybody a whole anything. As you can see, it is rooted in the hard-earned wisdom of the ages. It goes back to that primeval cook who first discovered the culinary version of Parkinson’s law: Appetite rises to meet food supply. She found that her family would eat a whole leg of mutton as readily as a half—and with very little additional gratitude. [LAUGHTER]

You can hear Capon’s witty humor there, and that partially explains why this book was reprinted in 2002.

But Christians will find the book stands out in another way. As an Episcopal priest, Capon goes beyond the how of cooking to the why. In a word: worship. That’s not to say Capon can be trusted theologically in every respect–for instance, he seems to promote elements of evolution here. But he does understand God meant ingredients like garlic and onions not merely to keep us alive, but to cause us to delight and give thanks to Him.

Here’s my daughter, Rebecca, reading from his hilarious chapter devoted to observing an onion…

WHITTEN: Once you are seated, the first order of business is to address yourself to the onion at hand. (You must resist the temptation to feel silly. If necessary, close the doors so no one will see you; but do not give up out of embarrassment.) You will note to begin with that the onion is a thing, a being, just as you are. Savor that for a moment. The two of you sit together in mutual confrontation.

No matter how witty or wise, though, a cookbook stands or falls based on its recipes. So I decided to test out the first recipe—lamb stew.

To save money, Capon suggests buying a larger cut of meat from a butcher, then cutting it down to use in several meals. So, to give that a try, I headed across town to Bare Bones Butcher to talk with Ian Palmer, a lamb farmer here in Middle Tennessee. Palmer delivered one of his processed lambs to the butcher just before I arrived.

PALMER: This is just a walk-in cooler that stores everything. Feel free to come on in. Oh, wow, there’s, like, a pig. What is that? That’s the lamb. That’s the lamb, ok.

When Palmer and I sat down a bit later, I asked him about Capon’s ideas. Palmer agreed that using more of the animal just makes sense—both economically and morally. In terms of economy, using more of an animal means more meals can be generated from the same lamb.

PALMER: There's a lot more to a lamb than lamb chops and loin chops and, and ground lamb. I mean, there's there's, you know, shanks and necks and then you get into the shoulder and you can do roasts…

Lamb shanks at my butcher cost $10 a pound, but Palmer sells a whole lamb in small vacuum-packed cuts for less than $6 a pound. So, it’s a different way to buy in bulk.

Still, morally, Palmer wants to do more than just sell cheaper lamb. He’s with his lambs when they’re born, and he personally oversees their deaths–making them as peaceful as possible. In between, Palmer gives them the best life he can, both because it makes the meat taste better and because he cares about the animals.

PALMER: We can keep them in pens with fresh bedding so that when they lamb, they’re there. We even have, like, wifi cameras set up in there so that if I’m at the house, I can sit there and say, ‘Oh, she’s struggling. I need to go help her. And even if that’s one o’clock in the morning, you go.”

Eventually, I did purchase 5 pounds of Palmer’s lamb shanks. Back at home, I followed Capon’s recipe as best I could. I cut the lamb pieces, sauteed them in oil, added the vegetables and broth, seasoning it with cheap wine and herbs as instructed. And yes, we did end up with the best lamb stew any of us had ever tasted. But we may have gotten more from Capon’s reflections on Christ, our Passover lamb.

Here’s mom, Debbie Rexer.

DEBBIE REXER: Think about the priests eating that meat and what a vivid picture that is, like connecting with what you’re saying. There has to be a death for us to live. And that death occurred because of our sin, but it’s also what gives life to the priests and those who partake of that meal.

Still, after hours of feasting, laughter, and serious reflection, our dinner party eventually came to an end.

WHITTEN: Thank y’all. It was delicious. Thanks for doing this project…

But the meal, along with Capon’s writing, left us even more hungry for that final Supper of the Lamb.

I’m Emily Whitten.

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