No. 1647

Saddle of Mutton, Printaniere

Selle de Mouton Printaniere

Prepare and braise a saddle the same as for the one with glazed roots (No. 1649), half an hour before serving, glaze the surface of the meat, strain the stock and reduce with Madeira sauce (No. 492). Dress the saddle on a long dish with a macedoine garnishing (No. 680) around it alternating the colors. Pour a little of the sauce under the saddle; glaze it properly and serve the remainder of the sauce-boat apart.

← No. 1646 Saddle of Mutton. Piedmontese Style Mutton No. 1648 Saddle of Mutton Roasted on the Spit →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade: this entry is really an assembly instruction that depends on three other numbered recipes. Here is what it assumes you already know.

The cross-references are the recipeNo. 1649 supplies the braise, No. 492 the Madeira sauce, No. 680 the macedoine. Without them you have a sauce-and-garnish plan and no cooking method; read them first or substitute your own braised saddle, a Madeira-fortified demi-glace, and a spring vegetable dice.
What a saddle isThe unsplit loin section from both sides of the backbone, taken from behind the ribs to the hip, usually 8-12 lb bone-in and serving 8-12. It needs a large roasting pan or braising pan and a rack; most home ovens will take one only just.
Mutton versus lambMutton means sheep over about two years old: darker, stronger, and firmer than lamb. Very little is sold in the United States now. A saddle of lamb will substitute, but it cooks faster and gives a milder, sweeter result than Ranhofer intended.
Braising temperatureRanhofer gives no temperatures. In modern terms a braised saddle wants a covered pan and a steady moderate oven (in the region of 325F) after the initial browning, with stock part-way up the meat; mutton at that size may need something like three hours, lamb less. Treat all of these as approximations, not as the book's figures.
GlazingTo glaze here means to brush the meat with reduced, sticky braising liquid and return it uncovered to a hot oven or under a salamander in short bursts, repeating until the surface is lacquered. It is done at the end, hence the half hour before serving.
Printaniere and macedoinePrintanier means spring-vegetable: carrot and turnip cut in small even shapes or scooped with a pea baller, plus green peas and green beans, each cooked separately so the colors stay distinct. That is the point of "alternating the colors" — the garnish is arranged in blocks around the dish, not tossed together.
The sauceStrain the braising stock, degrease it thoroughly, then reduce it with the Madeira sauce until it coats a spoon. A little goes under the meat only to gloss the platter; the rest goes to the table separately so the glaze on the saddle is not washed off.
CarvingA saddle is carved in long strips parallel to the backbone, lifted from the loin on each side, then the tenderloins from underneath. Rest the meat at least twenty minutes before it is cut.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its structure — thousands of numbered entries that refer to one another rather than repeat themselves — reflects a kitchen where the sauces and garnishes were standing preparations a cook could be sent to fetch. Saddle of mutton was among the grandest joints of the nineteenth-century table on both sides of the Atlantic, carried whole to the dining room and carved in view of the guests; the printanière dressing of scooped and diced spring vegetables was the standard way of signalling the season on a formal menu. Mutton itself has largely disappeared from American butchery over the past century, displaced by a market preference for young lamb, so a dish Ranhofer treated as everyday luxury now requires a special order.