No. 1650

Saddle or Baron-in the Oven-with Mashed Potatoes

Selle ou Baron au Four a la Puree de Pommes

Prepare a saddle or baron of mutton the same as for No. 1648; after it has been pared and tied, wrap it up and lay it in a deep baking pan coated over with fat; add a little water, then put it in the oven to cook for an hour to an hour and a quarter, unwrap fifteen minutes before serving; glaze, color nicely, then dress it on a hot long dish; pour some clear gravy (No. 404) over and serve at the same time a sauce-boat of clear gravy reduced to a half-glaze, also a vegetable dish full of mashed potatoes (No. 2798), or else olive-shaped potatoes cooked in butter.

← No. 1649 Saddle of Mutton with Glazed Roots-Braised Mutton No. 1651 Shoulder of Mutton, Marinated with Cream Sau →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already knows the cross-referenced numbers by heart, so the page reads as shorthand. The essentials are a large bone-in roast, a covered start, and an uncovered finish for color.

What the cuts areA saddle is both loins in one piece, undivided at the backbone, commonly somewhere around 8-10 lb. A baron is the saddle with both legs still attached, a joint of twenty-five pounds or more meant for a banquet table and larger than most home ovens will take. Order either from a butcher well in advance.
Mutton, not lambMutton is sheep over two years old, with darker meat and a stronger fat. It is sold now mainly by halal butchers and small farms, sometimes as hogget at one to two years. Lamb substitutes fine but cooks faster and tastes milder than what this recipe assumes.
"Wrap it up"The material is not specified; buttered paper is the usual covering for a roast of this kind in Ranhofer. Parchment tied with butcher's twine does the same job: it shields the surface while the interior comes up to temperature.
Oven heatNo temperature is given. As a modern approximation for a saddle, 425F for the first fifteen minutes, then 375F, with the last fifteen minutes uncovered back up at 425F to set the glaze. Go by internal temperature rather than by the hour and a quarter.
The hinge: cook to temperatureAn hour to an hour and a quarter is right only for a saddle of a particular weight, and mutton is unforgiving past medium. Pull it at 130-135F at the thickest part of the loin, away from bone, and rest it twenty minutes. A baron needs two to three hours and a thermometer even more.
GlazingGlaze here means brushing repeatedly with meat stock reduced to a syrup, not sugar. The half-glaze served alongside is the same clear gravy (No. 404) boiled down until it coats a spoon.
Olive-shaped potatoesPotatoes turned with a knife or cut with a scoop into small olive shapes, then cooked slowly in butter until tender and golden. Cut them all to one size or they will not finish together.
YieldA saddle serves eight to ten. A baron is a service-for-twenty-plus proposition and was carved at the table or on a sideboard, which is much of its point.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organized as a working reference: numbered preparations that call on one another, so that a single roast entry can assume a gravy, a puree and a knowledge of how the joint was pared two pages earlier. The baron is the grand version of this dish, the term generally traced to the older English usage in which a baron of beef meant a double sirloin left uncut for ceremonial roasting; applied to mutton it signals a joint chosen for the show of carving rather than for convenience. Mutton itself was ordinary American restaurant meat in the 1890s, ranked with beef on the same menus, and its near-disappearance from the U.S. market over the following century is the reason this recipe now reads as more exotic than it was. The alternative garnishes at the end -- mashed potatoes or potatoes turned into small olives and cooked in butter -- mark the difference between the family service and the dressed plate, both of which Delmonico's was expected to supply.