Saddle of Venison—Breaded—Black Cherry Sauce

Ranhofer writes this as a variation on the larded saddle that precedes it, so it assumes you already have a roast underway. The whole point is the crumb crust applied late, which means the timing matters more than anything else here.

• The hinge: crumb at three-quarters, not beforeBread crumbs added at the start of a roast burn and turn bitter long before the interior is done. Apply them when the saddle is about three-quarters through, butter them well, and give the meat only the last stretch of cooking under high heat to set the crust.
• A hot ovenPeriod sources put a hot or quick oven at roughly 400-450F, though usage varied from writer to writer. If the saddle has been roasting at a moderate temperature, raise the heat for the browning stage, or run it briefly under a broiler while watching it closely.
• Saddle of venisonThe saddle is the whole loin section with both loins attached to the backbone. Chevreuil is roe deer, a small animal, so Ranhofer's saddle would have been light; a saddle from a larger farmed or wild deer commonly runs 4-7 lb. Butchers today often sell the loins separately; the recipe works on a boneless loin, but reduce the roasting time sharply since it will cook in a fraction of the time.
• Internal temperatureVenison is very lean and there is no fat to buy back a mistake. Pull the saddle at 125–130°F for rare to medium-rare and rest it; past about 140°F the meat dries and turns liver-flavoured. The late crumbing suits this well, since the crust forms during the final climb.
• Larding, and doing withoutThe preceding recipes call for threading strips of pork fat through the meat with a larding needle. Breading is offered as the alternative, but it does not baste the interior the way larding does. Barding the saddle with sheets of pork fatback or bacon for the first three-quarters, then removing it before crumbing, gets you both.
• Pumpernickel crumbsThe pumpernickel meant here is the dense, dark, long-baked German rye, not the light American loaf coloured with molasses and caramel. Dry it hard in a low oven and grind it; it gives a darker, faintly sour crust that suits the cherry sauce.
• The cherry sauceSauce No. 447 is a separate entry in the book and is not reproduced here, so its exact composition is not knowable from this page. The recipe does specify that it is seasoned with cinnamon. A dark, slightly sweet-sour black cherry sauce is what is called for; any modern sour-cherry game sauce, kept on the tart side and not sweetened like a dessert compote, will serve.
• YieldA bone-in saddle of 5 lb serves six to eight as a main course, carved in long slices parallel to the backbone and lifted off the bone in one piece per side before slicing.