Skip to main content
Main

Saddle of Lamb, a LA Dauphine

A braised lamb saddle stuffed with veal or fowl forcemeat, tongue fillets, truffles, and aromatics, finished with Allemande sauce and breadcrumb coating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Saddle of Lamb, a LA Dauphine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Bone the saddle of lamb.

  2. Season the inside with salt and pepper.

  3. Line it with quenelle forcemeat, fillets of tongue, and truffles.

  4. Fold the skirts over to encase the forcemeat.

  5. Bind it in a buttered napkin.

  6. Tie the ends with twine.

Braise

  1. Place it in a braising pan on a drainer.

  2. Cover with bones and trimmings.

  3. Garnish with carrot, onion, celery, parsley, cloves, and mace.

  4. Moisten with stock to cover the lamb and braise gently for 2.5 hours.

  5. Place the lamb on a dish.

  6. Untie the napkin.

  7. Press the lamb between two dishes until nearly cold.

  8. Trim the lamb.

Coat and bake

  1. Cover with reduced Allemande sauce.

  2. Allow to set.

  3. Coat with egg.

  4. Sprinkle with bread-crumbs mixed with Parmesan.

  5. Brush with melted butter.

  6. Bake in the oven until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Saddle of lamb
Forms the main body of meat that is braised, then carved and coated.
Quenelle forcemeat
Provides a soft, delicate filling that stays moist and tender inside the lamb.
Egg
Acts as a binding layer so the bread-crumbs and Parmesan stick to the surface.
Bread-crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb coating brown golden.
Reduced allemande sauce
Adds a rich, creamy coating that sets over the chilled lamb.

The step that matters

Press the lamb until nearly cold. Pressing while the meat is still warm and firm lets it hold its shape. If it is not cooled enough, the sauce will not set and the crumb coating will slide off in the oven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, veal, truffle, butter, carrot, celery):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, veal, truffle, butter, carrot, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipes