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Saddle of Mutton
Mutton for a saddle should always be dressed at market. Wipe meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place on rack in dripping-pan, and dredge meat and bottom of pan with flour. Bake in hot oven one and one-fourth hours, basting every fifteen minutes. Serve with Currant Jelly Sauce.
To Carve a Saddle of Mutton, cut thin slices parallel with backbone, then slip the knife under and separate slices from ribs.
Saddle of Mutton, Currant Mint Sauce Follow directions for Saddle of Mutton, and serve with Currant Mint Sauce. Separate two-thirds tumbler of currant jelly in pieces, but do not beat it. Add one and onehalf tablespoons finely chopped mint leaves and shavings from the rind of one-fourth orange.
Saddle of Lamb à l'Estragnon Wipe meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place on rack in dripping-pan, and dredge meat and bottom of pan with flour. Bake in hot oven one and one-fourth hours, basting every fifteen minutes. Remove to hot serving dish and pour around Estragnon Sauce. Brown four tablespoons butter, add four tablespoons flour (which has been previously browned), and pour on gradually, while stirring constantly, two cups bouillon, and one-half cup stock which has infused with one tablespoon tarragon one hour.
A plain roast whose success rests almost entirely on the cut and the oven temperature. Everything else here is seasoning and sauce.
- What a saddle isThe whole loin section of both sides, left joined at the backbone and not split into chops — roughly 5 to 8 lb for lamb, heavier for mutton, with the flanks trimmed. Ask the butcher for an unsplit double loin; it will not be in a supermarket case.
- "Dressed at market"Presumably the butcher did the trimming and tying; the recipe does not spell out what the dressing involved. Squaring up a saddle neatly needs a saw and a heavy knife, which is likely why the work is left to the market.
- Hot ovenThe recipe gives no temperature; 'hot oven' in books of this period is usually read as roughly 425–450°F. Timing depends heavily on the size of the joint, so check an internal temperature — about 130–135°F at the thickest part of the loin for medium-rare — rather than cooking strictly to the clock.
- Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep over about two years old — stronger in flavor, firmer, and largely absent from American markets since the mid-twentieth century. Lamb is the practical substitute, and it wants less time than mutton for the same doneness.
- The flour dredgeFlour on the meat and in the pan is doing two jobs: it browns the surface fast and it thickens the drippings into a rough gravy as the basting liquid accumulates. Stir the pan bottom when you baste or the flour scorches.
- TumblerA tumbler is roughly an 8-oz glass, so two-thirds of one is about ⅔ cup of currant jelly. "Separate in pieces, but do not beat" matters: the sauce is meant to stay in glossy lumps, not become a smooth syrup.
- Tarragon in the Estragnon sauceEstragon is simply the French for tarragon. The recipe does not say whether fresh or dried leaves are meant; if using fresh, about a tablespoon chopped, added off the heat, gives a cleaner flavor than a long infusion.
- Browned flourThe brown roux calls for flour toasted separately, dry, in a pan or low oven until nut-colored. Browned flour has less thickening power than raw, so the finished sauce will be looser than a white sauce made with the same proportions.
- Yield and carvingDepending on its weight, a saddle will serve roughly six to ten. Carve as directed — long thin slices parallel to the backbone, then free them at the rib — and rest the joint before carving, or the slices will lose their juices onto the board.
The saddle was a display roast: undivided, symmetrical, carved at the table, and therefore a joint for a household with both a large oven and a servant or host confident enough to carve in front of guests. Fannie Farmer's book appeared in a period when American mutton was still ordinary market meat, though already losing ground — the country's sheep were increasingly raised for wool and slaughtered young, and by the mid-twentieth century mutton had nearly vanished from retail butchers here. The currant jelly served alongside is the older English convention for sheep meat, and mint has long been its rival; the tarragon-scented brown sauce in the third variation shows the French-trained cooking that Boston's cooking schools were teaching their pupils to imitate.