The Klephts were robbers, who worked the passes of the Balkans into modern Greece; on no particular authority I like to think they ate their lamb done in this marinade, which makes it meltingly tender. Goat, if you can get it, is even sweeter. In The Snake Stone, Yashim shares a whole lamb done in this sauce, and slow-roasted in a pit; a sort of Ottoman clam-bake.

You’ll need a half-pint pot of live plain yoghurt for a leg of lamb. Into this you should stir a couple of spoonfuls of tomato puree, a grated onion and its juice, as many crushed and chopped or pounded cloves of garlic as you like, a big pinch of ground coriander seed and another of ground cumin.

Stud the lamb with spikes of garlic, and bard it generously with the zingy marinade. Use your fingers or a wooden spoon. Let it stand somewhere cool for a few hours; all day is good.

Put the lamb into a heavy casserole with a few onions, hulled and halved, and a glass of water. Cook it in a hot oven with the lid on for about half an hour, then turn down the heat a little and cook it until it’s done the way you like: I like it almost sliding off the bone. Leave the lid off for the last half hour, to brown the meat; keep the onions a little moist.

You should serve the lamb cut up on a bed of pilaf, which is made like risotto with either long-grain rice or, better still bulgur (or cracked) wheat.