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Pork, Saddle of, Roasted
Have a saddle of pork cut in the same way as a saddle of mutton. As pork is not often cut up in this way, it will be necessary to order it beforehand. Take off the skin, trim the joint neatly, and cover the fat with buttered paper. Put it down to a clear fire, and baste liberally. Half an hour before it is taken up, remove the paper, dredge the meat lightly with flour, and baste until it is brightly browned. Send brown gravy and apple sauce, tomato sauce, or poivrade sauce (see recipes for these) to table with it. If liked, the skin can be left on, and it will then require to be scored lengthwise, the same way in which the saddle is carved. This is the handsomest joint of pork that can be served. Time, without the skin, twenty minutes per pound. Probable cost, 1s. per pound.
A Victorian spit-roast written for an open fire, but the joint itself is simply a double loin and behaves well in a modern oven. The main adjustments are the heat source and the internal temperature.
- What a saddle isThe saddle is the unsplit loin from both sides of the backbone, cut across the animal rather than down it. Butchers rarely break pork this way now, so the recipe's advice to order ahead still holds; ask for a double loin of pork, chine bone sawn through for carving.
- Clear fire to oven"Put it down to a clear fire" means a bright, smokeless fire with the joint hung or spitted before it, basting to compensate for the dry radiant heat. In an oven, start at 425F for 20-25 minutes to set the surface, then drop to 350F for the remainder.
- Buttered paperBaking parchment brushed with butter does exactly the job intended: it shields the fat from scorching while the interior cooks. Remove it for the last half hour as directed, or the surface will never colour.
- TimingTwenty minutes per pound at open-fire heat runs long by present standards. Cook to an internal temperature of 145F at the thickest part of the loin, away from bone, and rest 15-20 minutes; a faint blush of pink is expected and correct.
- Skin on or offLeaving the rind on and scoring it lengthwise gives crackling, but crackling wants dry skin and fierce dry heat, not liberal basting. If you want crackling, dry the rind thoroughly, salt it, and skip the buttered paper over that surface.
- The flour dredgeDredging with flour and basting is a 'frothing' finish: the flour absorbs the fat and browns to a crisp, freckled crust. Use it only over unskinned fat, and keep basting or the flour will taste raw and pasty.
- The saucesPoivrade is a peppery brown sauce built on mirepoix, vinegar and stock, from the classical French repertoire; the book expects you to turn to its own entry. Apple sauce is the English default and tomato sauce here means a cooked savoury sauce, not a condiment.
- Yield and costNo yield is given, and the recipe states no weight. A double loin is a large joint and will serve a full table. The shilling a pound is a period price note of no present use.
Cassell's is describing a piece of butchery borrowed from the mutton trade: the saddle, a joint that keeps both loins joined rather than splitting them down the spine, was a showpiece roast of the Victorian dinner table and was usually mutton, lamb or venison. Applying it to pork was a deliberate piece of grandeur, and the book itself explains the warning to the butcher: pork 'is not often cut up in this way'. Pork carcasses were more usually split and sold as sides, hams, loins and bellies, with a great deal of the animal going to bacon and salting rather than to the roasting spit. The remark that this is 'the handsomest joint of pork that can be served' reflects a period in which pork carried a plainer reputation than beef or mutton, and the saddle was a way of promoting it. The accompanying sauces point the same way: apple sauce is the ordinary English partner for roast pork, while poivrade belongs to the French repertoire.