Slow-Roast Lamb Shoulder with Garlic and Rosemary

1. 1Heat the oven to 160°C fan. Make deep incisions all over the lamb with a small sharp knife, about 12 of them, and push a sliver of garlic and a few rosemary needles into each. If you are using the anchovies, push those in too — they melt away completely and leave savouriness rather than fish.
2. 2Rub the lamb with the oil, then the salt and pepper, working it into the scored fat.
3. 3Scatter the onions and the remaining garlic across a deep roasting tin and sit the lamb on top. The onions act as a trivet and end up as the base of the gravy. Pour the stock around, not over — washing the seasoning off the top is a waste.
4. 4Cover the tin tightly with foil, crimping it around the rim so no steam escapes, and roast for 4 hours. This is the long unattended stretch: no basting, no checking. Opening the oven drops the temperature and extends the cooking for no benefit.
5. 5Take the foil off. The meat should be visibly shrunken from the bone and a fork should twist in it with no resistance at all. If there is any spring left, cover it again and give it another 30 minutes — shoulder is very forgiving of extra time and completely unforgiving of too little.
6. 6Turn the oven up to 220°C fan and roast uncovered for 20 minutes, until the top is dark and crisp in patches.
7. 7Rest the lamb for 20 minutes under loose foil. Meanwhile, skim the fat from the tin juices, mash the softened onions and garlic into what is left, and bubble it down on the hob into a rough gravy.
8. 8Pull the meat apart with two forks, straight from the bone, and serve it in its own juices.

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