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Saddle of Lamb, a LA Dauphene

A braised lamb saddle stuffed with veal or fowl forcemeat, tongue fillets, and truffles, seasoned and cooked with stock.

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 Dauphene

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the saddle

  1. Bone the saddle of lamb and season the inside with salt and pepper.

  2. Line the inside with quenelle forcemeat, then add fillets of tongue and truffles.

  3. Fold the skirts of the saddle over the filling to encase it, giving it a plump appearance.

  4. Spread butter on a napkin, wrap the saddle tightly, and tie the ends with twine.

Braise

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

  2. Cover with bones and trimmings, and garnish with carrot, onion, celery, parsley, cloves, and mace.

  3. Moisten with enough stock to cover the lamb and braise gently on moderate heat for about 2.5 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Once done, place the lamb on a dish, untie the napkin, and fold the saddle tightly again.

  2. Press it between two dishes until nearly cold, then trim neatly.

  3. Cover with a well-seasoned 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

Saddle of lamb
Provides the meat that is rolled around the filling and slowly braised until tender.
Quenelle forcemeat of veal or fowl
Forms a smooth, tender layer inside the lamb that sets as the dish cools.
Butter
Spread on the napkin to add richness and moisture to the meat as it braises.
Stock
Braising liquid that keeps the lamb moist and builds savoury flavour during cooking.
Truffles
Add a concentrated, earthy aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Braising gently on moderate heat. Stock should only come partway up and the heat kept gentle so the lamb becomes tender without boiling. Boiling toughens the meat and can break up the forcemeat inside the roll.

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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