No. 1736

Double or Saddle of Lamb with the Legs and Potato Croquettes

Double ou Selle d'Agneau avec les Gigots aux Croquettes de Pommes

Cut half a lamb crosswise that is the entire saddle with the two legs, leaving one of the ribs attached to the saddle, saw off the knuckle of the leg bones, make a handle two inches long by removing the meat and scraping the bone well; roll the flanks under, tie the loin with three rounds of string having a knot at each round, then wrap the meat in a very heavy buttered paper and let roast either on the spit or in the oven. Unwrap it fifteen minutes before serving so as to brown it nicely, then dress and glaze, garnish around the dish with potato croquettes (No. 2782) and decorate both legs with paper frills (No. 10); serve separately a rather light half-glaze sauce (No. 413).

← No. 1735 Rack of Lamb with Puree of Split Peas-Larded Lamb No. 1737 Fore Saddle of Lamb with Chestnuts →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a butcher's cut before it is a cooking project: the whole rear half of a lamb, saddle and both legs in one piece, known in English kitchens as a baron of lamb. Order it well in advance and measure your oven before you do.

The cut, in plain terms"Half a lamb crosswise" means the carcass divided at the ribs, Ranhofer leaving one rib attached to the saddle, so you get the double loin plus both hind legs joined at the pelvis. Depending on the size of the animal this can run from roughly 12 lb upward and needs a full-size oven and a large roasting pan; a milk-fed lamb will be smaller. Any butcher who breaks whole lambs can do it, but ask for the shanks sawn and the leg bones scraped clean (the French-trimmed "handle") as Ranhofer specifies.
The buttered paper is the hingeThe heavy buttered paper is a barding substitute: it keeps the lean loin from drying while the thick legs catch up, then comes off for the last fifteen minutes to color. Parchment tied on with string does the job; foil steams the surface and makes the final browning slower. Do not skip the uncovering, or the roast arrives pale and gray.
Oven heatThe recipe gives no temperature, only "either on the spit or in the oven." In a modern oven a moderate heat suits a joint this size, with the heat raised for the final uncovered browning. A spit over live fire was the original method and gives a better crust if you have the equipment.
Timing and donenessGo by a thermometer, not the clock: roughly 12-15 minutes per pound at 325F, pulling at 130-135F in the thickest part of the leg for pink lamb. The loin will finish before the legs, which is exactly why the paper wrap exists. Rest the joint 20-30 minutes before carving; it is large enough to hold heat easily.
Half-glaze sauceNo. 413 is a demi-glace, meaning brown stock reduced with espagnole. A good reduced lamb or veal stock, lightly thickened and finished off the heat with butter, serves the same purpose. "Rather light" means thin enough to coat a spoon and no more; the roast is already rich.
GlazingTo glaze in this period is to brush the roast with reduced meat stock in the last minutes so it takes on gloss, not to apply anything sweet. Use the same reduction you built for the sauce.
Frills and croquettesThe paper frills on the exposed leg bones are decoration and also a handle for carving. The potato croquettes (duchesse potato piped, breaded and fried) can be shaped ahead and fried while the roast rests.
YieldA baron this size serves 12-16 generously. Carve the loin in slices parallel to the backbone and the legs separately.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the recipe is shaped by banquet service rather than home cooking: a joint carried whole to the table, glazed, frilled and ringed with croquettes, then carved in the room. The double saddle with the legs attached is what English kitchens called a baron of lamb, a name generally traced to the older baron of beef, the two sirloins left uncut; the point in both cases is spectacle, since a whole hindquarter can only be roasted where there is a spit or an oven big enough and a table big enough to justify it. The buttered-paper wrap is an old spit-roasting technique carried into the range oven, doing the work that a sheet of pork fat or caul once did. Recipes at this scale largely vanished from American cookbooks as domestic ovens shrank and as lamb came to market broken down into legs, racks and chops rather than sides.