No. 1738

Hind Saddle of Lamb, a la Brighton

Selle d'Agneau a la Brighton

Prepare and trim a saddle of lamb as explained for the braised saddle (No. 1745); cover it over with "crepruette," (caul fat) or thin slices of fat pork. Boil twelve to fifteen quarts of soup stock in a saucepan, season it with salt, pepper, mignonette, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, two quartered carrots and two onions, one of them having two cloves in it, then boil and skim. About one hour and a quarter before serving put in the saddle and let boil unceasingly for an hour to an hour and a half according to its size; when done drain it off, untie, glaze and dress; garnish around with Villeroi cauliflower (No. 2716), and serve a Viennese sauce (No. 558) separately.

← No. 1737 Fore Saddle of Lamb with Chestnuts Lamb No. 1739 Hind Saddle of Lamb a la Chanceliere →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is a poach, not a braise: the saddle cooks submerged in seasoned stock and is finished with glaze and two elaborate garnishes. Nearly everything that needs translating here is either a cross-reference or a term of art.

The hinge: do not actually boil it"Let boil unceasingly" reflects a kitchen where a stockpot the size of a bathtub barely moved when a joint went in. A rolling boil for an hour will squeeze and toughen lamb loin. Hold the liquid at a bare shiver, 180-185F, and cook to an internal temperature of 130-135F at the thickest part of the loin for pink meat.
Hind saddleIn Ranhofer's usage the hind saddle is the loin section, the fore saddle of No. 1737 the rib section; the recipe itself sends you to No. 1745 for the trimming. Ask for a saddle or double loin of lamb, chine bone cracked, a few pounds' worth, and expect to trim and tie it yourself.
Crepinette / caul fatThe "crepruette" of the text is crépine, caul fat, the lacy membrane from around a pig's stomach. It is still sold frozen by good butchers and needs a soak in warm water to unfold. Thin sheets of fatback or unsmoked pork belly, as the recipe allows, do the same job of keeping the surface from drying and greying.
Twelve to fifteen quarts of stockThat is three to nearly four gallons, a restaurant quantity meant to keep the temperature from crashing when a large joint goes in. In a domestic pot, 6-8 quarts in a narrow stockpot or a covered roaster will cover a tied saddle; the vegetables and herbs scale down proportionally.
MignonetteCoarsely cracked white or black peppercorns, what a modern kitchen calls mignonette pepper. Crack them under a pan rather than grinding, or they disappear into the stock.
GlazingAfter draining and untying, brush the saddle with reduced cooking liquid boiled down to a syrup and pass it under a hot salamander or broiler until it shines. Skim the fat off the reduction first or the glaze will streak.
The two cross-referencesVilleroi cauliflower means florets coated in a thick, reduced allemande-style sauce, left to set, then breaded and deep-fried; they must be cold and firm before crumbing. The Viennese sauce of No. 558 must be looked up in the book; if, as its name suggests, it is a yolk-enriched white sauce, it will break if it boils after the yolks go in.
YieldA saddle of this size serves six to eight, carved in long strips parallel to the backbone and laid back on the bone. The poaching liquid is worth keeping as a light broth.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organized as a professional reference: almost every recipe leans on numbered cross-references to sauces, garnishes and base preparations elsewhere in the book, as this one does three times in a short paragraph. Boiled mutton with a caper or white sauce was a fixture of nineteenth-century English service, though the saddle itself was more often roasted than boiled, and the dressing a la Brighton may nod to that English idiom rather than to any single documented dish. What is characteristically Delmonico's is the finish: a plainly cooked joint given a French glaze, ringed with deep-fried Villeroi cauliflower and sent out with a sauce in a separate boat, which is to say a plain method dressed for a dining room where plainness would not have been forgiven.