No. 1745

Hind Saddle of Lamb with Mashed Turnips—Braised

Selle d'Agneau Braisee a la Puree de Navets

Trim a saddle of yearling lamb, suppress the skin that covers it and the surplus of fat near the tail; take away very little of the kidney fat; roll the flanks under and tie the saddle with four rows of string making a knot at each row; lay it in a low braziere lined with fragments of fat pork, sliced onions and carrots, celery roots and a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, and let the meat smother while turning it over; moisten with one pint of hot stock (No. 194a); after it has slowly fallen to a glaze cover it to its height with more hot stock and let it fall very slowly to a glaze once more, then remoisten to its full height and cook while covered on a slow fire, turning it over and basting it frequently. Should the stock reduce too freely then add more hot stock. Two hours and a half will suffice for the cooking, then drain and pare the meat, strain the stock, and remove the fat and return it once more to the braziere with the saddle and let this cook for half an hour longer, glazing it in a moderate oven; then dress and surround with mashed turnips pushed through a pocket into round tartlet crusts and laid one beside the other; pour one-third of the stock over the meat and thicken the remainder with reduced espagnole sauce (No. 414) and Madeira, serving it in a sauce-boat.

← No. 1744 Hind Saddle of Lamb, French Style Lamb No. 1746 Hind Saddle of Lamb with Gravy—Roasted →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a professional brigade, a stockpot always on, and a coal range that can be held at a bare simmer. The dish is straightforward once the vocabulary is translated, but it depends entirely on the repeated reduction-to-glaze, which is where the flavor comes from.

The hinge: three reductionsThe hinge: reduced to a glaze twice -- The saddle is moistened with a pint of stock and taken down to a glaze, remoistened to its height and taken down to a glaze again, then remoistened a third time and cooked covered. Each reduction lacquers the meat and concentrates the braising liquid; skipping to a single long simmer produces boiled lamb in thin broth. Keep the heat low enough that the liquid barely trembles and watch it once it gets syrupy, since a glaze turns to scorch quickly.
BraziereA braising pan: a wide, shallow, heavy vessel with a close-fitting lid. A large Dutch oven or a roasting pan tightly covered with foil does the same job. "Low" matters, as the saddle should sit in liquid that comes only to its height, not swim.
Hind saddle of yearling lambThe unsplit double loin from both sides of the backbone, cut behind the ribs and forward of the leg. From a yearling this runs roughly 5 to 8 lb bone-in; a butcher will need advance notice and will trim and tie it on request. Modern spring lamb saddles are smaller and will cook faster than the stated time.
Smother while turning it overThis is sweating, not searing: the meat goes on the bed of pork fat and vegetables, the pan is covered, and it cooks in its own steam over low heat until the vegetables give up their moisture. No browning in a dry hot pan is intended.
The stocks and saucesNo. 194a is one of Ranhofer's stock recipes, a brown stock for braising; a good unsalted brown veal or beef stock stands in. Espagnole (No. 414) is brown stock thickened with brown roux and enriched with tomato and mirepoix, then reduced; a strong reduced brown sauce or demi-glace will serve. Use unsalted stock throughout, because repeated reduction concentrates any salt.
Oven temperatures"Glazing it in a moderate oven" means about 350F, uncovered, basting with the reduced liquid until the surface shines. This is the last half hour only; the braise itself stays on the stovetop.
Pushed through a pocketA pastry bag. The turnip pureee is piped into pre-baked tartlet shells, so bake the shells blind and fill them at the last moment or the crusts soften. Turnip pureee holds a shape better if the cooked turnips are drained well and dried in the pan before mashing with butter.
Doneness and timingTwo and a half hours plus a half hour of glazing gives fully cooked, sliceable braised lamb, not the pink saddle a modern roast recipe aims at. That is the intent of the dish. A smaller saddle may be tender in under two hours; test with a skewer rather than the clock.
YieldA saddle of this size carves for 8 to 10, with one filled tartlet per person arranged around the platter.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of the food he cooked at Delmonico's in New York, and it is essentially a French professional kitchen's repertoire written in English word order, with the French title kept above each entry. Selle d'agneau braisee a la puree de navets belongs to the grande cuisine tradition codified in the nineteenth century by Careme and his successors: a large joint braised in its own progressively reduced stock, glazed, and surrounded by a garnish that gives the dish its name. Turnip puree with lamb or mutton is an old pairing in both French and British cooking, the vegetable's slight bitterness cutting fat, and serving it in individual pastry shells rather than a spooned mound suits the portioned, course-by-course style of service a la russe that prevailed in restaurants of Ranhofer's day. The repeated reduce-to-glaze technique described here belonged to a kitchen where brown stock was made daily in quantity and a corner of the range could be kept at a whisper of heat all afternoon; the recipe's casual instruction to "add more hot stock" assumes a resource most home cooks did not have then and do not have now.