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Saddle Op Mutton

A saddle of young mutton stuffed with forcemeat, braised in white stock, then served with mushrooms, truffles, cock's-combs, and allemande sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 Op Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all bones from the saddle of mutton carefully, keeping the skin intact.

  2. Fill the saddle with forcemeat and secure it by rolling it in a buttered cloth and tying the ends with string.

Braise and press

  1. Braise the saddle in white stock for 30 minutes, adding stock vegetables.

  2. Remove the saddle from the stock, wrap it in a cloth, and place it between two dishes with a heavy weight on top until cold.

Reheat and serve

  1. Reheat the saddle gently in a little stock (do not boil), then place it on a serving dish.

  2. Garnish with button mushrooms, truffles, and cock's-combs, and pour allemande sauce over it.

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. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  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 young mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and is the meat that is braised and served.
Forcemeat
Fills the boned saddle, adding a moist, savoury stuffing that keeps the meat juicy.
White stock
Braising liquid that gently cooks the meat and keeps it moist.
Allemande sauce
Rich, creamy sauce poured over the finished saddle, adding moisture and richness.

The step that matters

Reheat the saddle gently without boiling. Boiling toughens meat proteins and can make the outer layer tough and dry, so the saddle should be warmed slowly in a little stock.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, carrot, onion, mushroom, truffle, sauce):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, carrot, onion, mushroom, truffle, sauce. 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.

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