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A Saddle of Lamb
Prepare as you would a saddle of mutton; it is not necessary, however, to saw the backbone; as in carving, the joints should be cut through both sides of the chine. Salt the meat and dredge well with flour; baste often until done. Serve with mint sauce.
This is a set of notes for a cook who already knew how to roast a large joint; almost everything a modern reader needs — temperature, time, doneness — is left out. Here is what the shorthand assumes.
- What a saddle isThe saddle is the whole unsplit loin from both sides of the animal, taken from behind the ribs to the hip, with the backbone running down the middle. It typically runs 5-7 lb bone-in. Any butcher can cut one to order, though most will want notice.
- The chine, and why it is not sawnThe chine is the backbone. With mutton it was commonly sawn so the joint could be carved off in slabs; the reason the author actually gives is that a saddle is carved by running the knife down both sides of the chine, so sawing the bone is not needed. If you would rather carve at the table without wrestling, ask the butcher to chine it anyway.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given; the book assumes a cook who could judge her own oven. If you want modern figures: start at 450F for 15-20 minutes to set the crust the flour dredge is meant to build, then drop to 325F for the remainder.
- Doneness, not minutesPeriod roasting tables for lamb ran anywhere from about 12 to 20 minutes per pound, which on a saddle can land well past pink. Use a thermometer in the thickest part of the loin, clear of bone: 130-135F for medium rare, then rest 15-20 minutes under loose foil before carving.
- Dredging with flourSalting and flouring the surface before roasting was standard practice for browning and for thickening the drippings into gravy. It still works, but the flour will scorch if the meat sits in a very hot oven too long — dredge, brown briefly, then reduce the heat.
- Basting"Baste often" made sense in an oven with no fan and uneven radiant heat. A saddle carries a fat cap that self-bastes; every 20 minutes is plenty, and each opening of the door costs you heat.
- Mint sauceThe English sauce meant here is chopped mint steeped in hot vinegar with a little sugar — sharp and thin, not the sweetened green jelly sold in jars. Make it an hour ahead so the mint has time to bleed into the vinegar.
- YieldA 6 lb saddle serves eight generously, with the tenderloins underneath as the choice cut. Carve the loins off whole and slice them across, or cut down in long strips parallel to the bone.
The saddle was among the grandest of the English roasting joints, and its appearance in an American household book is a piece of borrowed prestige: a saddle of mutton was the centrepiece of club dinners and country-house tables, and the lamb version is offered here as the lighter, more manageable cousin. That the recipe simply says "prepare as you would a saddle of mutton" tells you which joint the author considered the default — mutton, the meat of a mature sheep, was still sold in American markets in this period, while today it is scarce in retail and lamb has largely taken its place. The pairing with mint sauce is English and long-standing, generally traced to the tradition of serving a sharp acidic sauce with fatty meats; vinegar-based mint sauce appears in English cookery books well before this one.