Parené Pospolité Barannie Stehno

This recipe is drawn from an 1870 Slovak-language cookbook at the intersection of traditional Slovak and Austro-Hungarian culinary traditions. Written in a period when home kitchens saw significant transformation, the recipe reflects mid-19th-century preferences for both simple ingredients and gentle cooking methods suited to the resources—and equipment—of rural households. At the time, lamb was a common protein, and steaming or braising meat with root vegetables and bacon was an affordable, practical technique to ensure tenderness and flavor without waste. The original recipe would have been prepared for family tables rather than restaurants, and it balances thrift (using all available herbs and scraps) with the treat of a whole leg of lamb, possibly reserved for Sundays or celebrations. The spelling and terminology also capture the regional characteristics of Slovak cookery just before the codification of 'national' cuisines in Central Europe.

In 1870, the recipe would typically be made with a heavy cast-iron or copper pot, likely heated in the hearth or on a wood-fired stove. Cooks used cleavers or sturdy knives for butchering and larding the meat, and wooden spoons or ladles for stirring. For the larding, a sharp paring knife or even a specific meat larding needle might have been used, though a small knife sufficed in humble households. Covered pots would trap steam and enable the long, gentle 'steaming' of the meat with vegetables.