On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 1 saddle of lamb
• 4 cloves garlic, slivered
• 3 sprigs rosemary, 6 thyme
• 60 g butter, soft · 2 tbsp oil
• 2 onions, 2 carrots, thickly sliced
• 200 ml white wine
• 400 ml lamb stock
• Salt, black pepper
• A probe thermometer — genuinely necessary here

Method

1. Out of the fridge 90 minutes before cooking. A cold saddle cooks unevenly and this is not a cut to guess at.
2. Score the fat, insert the garlic slivers, rub with butter, salt heavily.
3. Onions and carrots in the tray as a trivet, saddle on top, wine and stock poured around.
4. 230 °C for 15 minutes, then down to 180 °C. Roast until the thickest part of the loin reads 52 °C — usually 35 to 45 minutes.
5. Rest 25 minutes, loosely tented. It will climb to about 56 °C, which is correct.
6. Strain and reduce the tray liquid to a light jus. Carve the loins off whole, then slice them across; then dig out the two fillets from underneath, which are the best part and belong to whoever is carving.

Cook's note. Use a thermometer. This is a R899 cut with two very different thicknesses in it, and the difference between 52 °C and 62 °C is the difference between a centrepiece and an expensive disappointment.

← Back to The Lamb Book