No. 1605

Double Baron or Saddle, Roasted

Double Baron ou Selle Rotis

The double of mutton is the back hip part with the leg on which the saddle with about seven of the ribs is left adhering (Fig. 340). Select a good sheep not to large, but young and fat, remove the skin and suppress the fat; cut several incisions on the fat to facilitate and equalize the cooking, then lay it in a copper pan and cook in a moderate oven; the meat must be left rare, then salt it over. Dress and decorate the leg bone with paper frills (No. 10), pouring a clear gravy (No. 404), on the bottom of the dish. The baron and saddle are to be cooked the same way and served the same; they differ only in cut. The baron is taken from the loin end as far as the first rib (Fig. 340). The saddle is the whole hind part of the mutton without the legs.

← No. 1604 Mutton Cutlets with Marinade Mutton No. 1606 Sheep's Ears a la Westphalian →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a butcher who can cut a baron and a kitchen with a hearth-sized oven. Both are workable today with a conversation at the meat counter and a large roasting pan.

What you are orderingA baron is both legs plus the loin, still joined at the pelvis; the saddle is the paired loins only, legs removed; Ranhofer's "double" is the hip and leg with the saddle and about seven ribs left attached. A whole baron is a very large joint, beyond a domestic oven, so a double loin saddle of 6-8 lb is the practical substitute.
Mutton versus lambMutton is sheep of a year or more, by the strictest definition over two, strongly flavoured and firmer; Ranhofer's "good sheep not too large, but young" is closer to what we would call hogget. Ordinary supermarket lamb is usually under a year old and will cook faster and taste milder.
Suppress the fatThis means trim it back, not remove it entirely. Leave roughly a quarter inch of the fat cap, then cut the incisions he describes -- shallow crosshatch scoring through fat only, never into the meat -- so the layer renders evenly rather than curling.
Copper pan and moderate ovenThe copper pan is simply a heavy roasting pan; any heavy-gauge roaster does the same job. The book gives no temperatures; "moderate oven" is conventionally read as about 350F. One common modern approach for a saddle is to start at 450F for 15 minutes to set the crust, then drop to 350F for the remainder.
Rare, by thermometer"The meat must be left rare" is the hinge of the recipe -- a saddle taken past medium turns dry and livery. Pull it at 125-130F at the thickest part of the loin, well clear of bone, and expect a further 5F rise while it rests.
Timing and restingReckon roughly 12-14 minutes per pound at 350F for a boned-in saddle, but treat that as a guide and go by the thermometer. Rest a large joint 20-30 minutes before carving; the loins are cut in long strips parallel to the backbone, then across.
SaltingRanhofer salts after roasting. A common modern practice is to salt the surface a day ahead and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator, which seasons more deeply and dries the fat for better browning.
Paper frills and clear gravyThe frills (No. 10) are cut paper cuffs slipped over the exposed leg bones, purely decorative. The clear gravy (No. 404) is an unthickened brown jus; deglazing the roasting pan with stock and skimming the fat gives the same effect.
YieldA 6-8 lb double saddle will serve roughly 8-10 as a main course; a full baron is a joint on a banquet scale.

A Little History

This is Charles Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen writing for the American banquet trade of the 1890s, and the baron is a set piece rather than a family dinner -- a joint carried whole to the table, frilled and carved in the room. The word baron for a double sirloin or double leg is old English carving vocabulary, often said to be a pun on the sirloin knighting legend, though that story has no documentary support; the true origin of the term remains uncertain. Mutton stood higher on nineteenth-century menus than it does now, when most American and British sheep are slaughtered as lambs; the older animal Ranhofer specifies would have had a depth of flavour that made a plain roast with clear gravy, and nothing else, worth the ceremony.