No. 1646

Saddle of Mutton. Piedmontese Style

Selle de Mouton a la Piemontaise

Have a good saddle of mutton, hang it in a cool place for eight days to have it tender; pare the two fillets, suppress all the fat and skin adhering to the meat so as to be able to lard it with larding pork, then roll the flanks under. Tie up the saddle, lay it in an English cradle spit (Fig. 344), after it has been wrapped in a buttered paper, and let roast in front of a moderate fire for an hour and a quarter, basting it frequently during the time; remove the paper to let attain a good color, then untie it on a baking pan, detach the two fillets, leaving on some of the fat; cut them upslanting and replace them from whence they were taken. In the meantime prepare a Piedmontese risot (No. 739), and just when ready to serve dress the saddle on a releve dish with the risot; besprinkle over with a few handfuls of chopped white Piedmontese truffles, glaze it over and send to the table accompanied by a sauce-boat of thickened gravy (No. 405).

← No. 1645 Saddle of Mutton, German Style Mutton No. 1647 Saddle of Mutton, Printaniere →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is roasting an entire saddle on a rotating cradle spit in front of an open fire, which is the one element no modern kitchen reproduces. Everything else translates cleanly, provided you treat the timing as a temperature target rather than a clock reading.

What a saddle isThe saddle is the unsplit loin section, both loins with the backbone between them; trimmed weights vary, commonly somewhere in the 6 to 10 lb range, and it will serve roughly eight to ten. Any butcher will cut one to order from lamb; ask for the flanks left long enough to fold under, as the recipe requires.
Mutton versus lambMutton means sheep over two years old, with denser, stronger meat. It is sold in the US mainly through halal and specialty butchers; hogget (one to two years) is the closest common substitute. If you use ordinary spring lamb, expect it to reach temperature well before the stated hour and a quarter.
The eight days' hangingThis is dry-aging; the recipe specifies only 'a cool place'. If you want the effect, have the butcher age the saddle for you, or hold it uncovered on a rack in a dedicated refrigerator at 34-38F. A domestic fridge shared with other food is not the place for it.
LardingLarding pork is fresh pork back fat cut into long strips and drawn through the meat with a larding needle. Salt pork or thick unsmoked bacon, blanched briefly to draw off salt, does the same job. Lean mutton loin genuinely benefits from it; the fat you stripped off the outside has to be replaced somewhere.
Spit into ovenA rotisserie at high heat is the direct equivalent. In a conventional oven, roast at 400F on a rack, basting every fifteen minutes, and pull the paper for the last twenty minutes to color the surface. Cook to 130-135F at the thickest part of the loin for medium-rare, then rest 20 minutes before carving; the hour and a quarter is a rough guide only.
Buttered paperUse parchment brushed with butter, not foil. Parchment shields the surface while letting moisture escape, which is what allows the meat to brown properly once it comes off.
The carve-and-replace trickDetaching each fillet whole, slicing it on a long slant, and setting the slices back on the bone where they were taken from is the hinge of the presentation. Do it quickly on a warm pan so the meat does not chill, and keep a little of the fat cap attached to hold the slices together.
Piedmontese trufflesThese are white Alba truffles, and they are usually shaved on raw rather than cooked, though note that Ranhofer scatters them over and then glazes the joint. Add them at the last moment; heat dulls the aroma you are paying for. At current prices many cooks will substitute a good risotto finished with Parmesan and a little truffle butter and let the dish stand on its own.
Glaze and gravyTo glaze means to brush with reduced meat stock (glace de viande) for shine, not to apply anything sweet. The "thickened gravy" of No. 405 is a lightly bound brown sauce; pan juices deglazed with white wine and reduced with veal stock serve the same purpose.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades in the kitchens of Delmonico's in New York, and this recipe shows the house method at full stretch: a large joint spit-roasted before a fire, carved and reassembled to look uncut, then dressed with a Piedmontese risotto and shaved white truffles from Alba. The "Piemontaise" label in nineteenth-century French practice generally signals rice cooked in the northern Italian manner with Parmesan and white truffle, Piedmont being associated with both the rice of the Po valley and the truffles of the Langhe. Mutton, rather than lamb, was the usual sheep meat on American and British tables through much of the century, and hanging a good joint for a week or so was common handling. The taste for young lamb came to dominate later.