No. 1649

Saddle of Mutton with Glazed Roots-Braised

Selle de Mouton Braisee aux Racines Glacees

Cut the loin parts beginning at the first rib; cut off the two legs below the tail, in a round direction going toward the flank, remove the thin skin covering the fat, and roll the flank over, keeping it in position with six rounds of string, tying a knot at each round. Place the meat in a braziere having the grater or leaf covered with sliced pork, moisten with two quarts of stock (No. 194a) adding half a pound of grated fat pork, two carrots, two onions, two bunches of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, and one gill of brandy; three hours before serving let it come to a boil on a brisk fire, baste the meat covered with a heavy and strongly buttered paper, then set it in the oven being careful to watch that it simmers slowly until it is cooked; ten minutes before serving drain it on a baking pan, untie carefully, coat it over with glaze, and glaze it in the oven. Dress the saddle, glaze it afresh and group around clusters of glazed new carrots, glazed onions and celery root. Strain the stock, remove the fat and reduce with brown sauce (No. 413) and Madeira, this sauce to be served separately.

← No. 1648 Saddle of Mutton Roasted on the Spit Mutton No. 1650 Saddle or Baron-in the Oven-with Mashed Pota →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a butcher's counter, a stockpot already going, and a brazier that can move from stovetop to oven. All three have modern equivalents, but the cut is the first hurdle.

The cutA saddle is both loins in one piece, still joined at the backbone, cut from the first rib back and trimmed short of the legs. Order it as a whole saddle of lamb, chine bone in, and ask for the flanks left long enough to fold under; 5 to 7 lb is a realistic weight and serves 8 to 10.
Mutton versus lambMutton means sheep over two years old, with dense dark meat that wants three hours of moist heat. Most butchers now sell lamb under a year, which will be done in about half that time. If you use lamb, judge by feel and thermometer rather than by the clock.
The braziereA brazier here is simply a heavy lidded braising pan with a rack or lattice in the bottom to keep the meat off the base. A Dutch oven with a folded trivet, or a roasting pan with a rack and a tight foil lid, does the same work.
Oven heatThe instruction is to bring it to a boil on a brisk fire, then hold it at a bare simmer in the oven. Ranhofer gives no temperature; a modern oven of roughly 300 to 325F will hold that. Anything higher and the two quarts of stock will boil rather than tremble, and the loin will tighten and dry.
UnitsA gill of brandy is half a cup. Two quarts of stock should come partway up the meat, not cover it; this is a braise, not a boil.
Grated fat porkThe half pound of grated fat pork is unsmoked pork fat rather than smoked bacon. Fresh fatback, or salt pork, grated on the coarse side of a box grater, is the closest thing; unsmoked pork belly fat also works. Smoked bacon will take the dish somewhere else entirely.
GlazeThe glaze called for is glace de viande, brown stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. Reducing a cup or two of the braising liquid to a few tablespoons gives the same lacquer. The recipe allows ten minutes: drain and untie, coat with glaze and set it in the oven, then glaze again once dressed.
The sauceNo. 413 is Ranhofer's brown sauce, of the espagnole/half-glaze family. Strained, defatted braising liquid reduced hard with a good demi-glace and a splash of Madeira gets you there without building the mother sauce from scratch.
Glazed rootsThe garnish is carrots, onions and celery root cooked separately in butter, a little sugar and just enough stock to evaporate into a shine. Do not use the vegetables from the braise, which have given everything to the liquid.

A Little History

The saddle was the grand roasting cut of nineteenth-century sheep, and Ranhofer gives it several treatments in The Epicurean (1894), his record of the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York. Braising rather than spit-roasting it, as the preceding entry does, signals older or coarser meat: the long slow bath in stock with pork fat compensates for a loin that would go leathery on a spit. The scaffolding around the dish is pure French service kitchen practice. Mutton itself has largely vanished from American markets since the mid-twentieth century, when lamb became the standard and the older, stronger-flavored meat acquired an unfortunate reputation, often attributed to wartime rations though the story is more repeated than established. Recipes like this one are worth reading as evidence of what cooks did with a difficult cut when it was the only one on offer.