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Saddle of Lamb, a LA Dauphine

A lamb saddle stuffed with forcemeat, tongue fillets, and truffles, braised with vegetables and stock, finished with reduced Allemande sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 of Lamb, a LA Dauphine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the saddle

  1. Bone the saddle of lamb.

  2. Lay the bony saddle on a table.

  3. Season the inside with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Line the saddle with forcemeat.

  5. Add fillets of tongue and truffles.

  6. Fold the skirts of the saddle over the filling to encase it.

  7. Spread butter on a napkin.

  8. Bind the saddle tightly in the butter.

  9. Tie the ends with twine.

Braise

  1. Place the saddle in an oval braising pan on a drainer.

  2. Cover the saddle with bones and trimmings.

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

  4. Moisten the saddle with enough stock to cover it.

  5. Braise gently on moderate heat for about 2.5 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Place the lamb on a dish.

  2. Untie the napkin.

  3. Fold the saddle tightly again.

  4. Press the saddle between two dishes until nearly cold.

  5. Trim the saddle and cover with reduced Allemande sauce.

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

Lamb saddle
Forms the main body of the dish, carrying the stuffing and becoming tender during braising.
Forcemeat of veal or fowl
Lines the saddle and provides a moist, savoury filling that stays tender when cooked.
Butter
Enriches the outer wrap and adds richness and moisture as the saddle braises.
Stock
Moistens the saddle during braising, gently cooking it and building a savoury base.
Truffles
Add a concentrated, earthy aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Braise gently on moderate heat. Lamb saddle is a tough, collagen-rich cut that needs slow, low-intensity heat to become tender. A vigorous boil toughens the meat and dries it out, while gentle moist heat breaks down connective tissue into a tender texture.

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.

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