Did I say live coverage? Well, when I say “live” I mean with a two-day delay… Not to ruin the ending, but as of Sunday, April 23, 2006 at midnight, the Supper of the Lamb was complete, and completely successful.

But let’s roll back the clock to Friday night: We took a little less than half of the meat that was left on the braised leg of lamb (did I mention the braised leg? Back on Night I, while I was doing the mushroom-wine stew on the stovetop, the whole rest of the leg, bone and all, went in a big pot in the oven with some wine and thyme, then into the fridge) and cut it into pieces to use in a spinach casserole.

The recipe said one pound of lamb, but because I actually had a full eight people to feed that night, I got a little nervous and threw in an extra quarter pound. We certainly had enough to go around, and one person even had seconds.

This spinach casserole recipe was interesting for two reasons. First, the text after says, “Any expert on the subject will quickly recognize it (minus the lamb and, of course, the side order of bread) as a low-carbohydrate spinach thing straight out of one of those drinking-man’s diets.”

OK, so my dad and his girlfriend claim there was knowledge of the evils of carbohydrates way back when, before everyone got obsessed with fat, but I’d never read anything to corroborate that before.

And then, what the hell is a “drinking-man’s diet”? Well, thank you, Google: it was a real diet plan, published in 1964. Wow, one more thing I missed by being born too late.

Capon somehow brings all that around with a short lecture on the merits of having not quite enough food: “It does a family good to see a meal wiped out completely before surfeit has destroyed enthusiasm. One of the commonest graces prays that we may be mindful of the needs of others. But faith without works is dead. An occasional entree in short supply puts a few more teeth into the prayer.”

And it turns out this “puts teeth in the prayer” business is, or was, an established phrase–one of our guests said her grandmother used to say it. I think I’ll practice saying it, so by the time I get old it’ll just roll right off the tongue.

Oh, but back to the second intriguing thing about the recipe. It had a secret, soooo-Sixties ingredient. We had a brief bout of guessing, but the answer was never officially revealed. For those who were still curious:

Mayonnaise.

That, combined with a little cheese, a fair amount of butter, a ton of cooked spinach, and the shredded lamb–well, we didn’t really need those extra teeth at all. Slid right down the gullet. Amen, again.

Next posts in the series:
1L/8X4 IV: Night III Report
1L/8X4 V: Night IV Report, aka “Original Thinking Is Lonely”

Previously in the series:
Live coverage: Lamb for Eight Persons Four Times
1L/8X4: The Prologue
1L/8X4: Prep for Night 1
1L/8X4 II(a): Night I Report
1L/8X4 II(b): The Freakin’ Spaetzle