Chef Juliette
Selle de Chevreuil et Cuissot
Selle de Chevreuil et Cuissot teaches the discipline of game: strip every tendon, skip marinade for a young, well-hung joint, roast in butter, and stop before leanness turns to dryness.
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Selle de Chevreuil à l’Allemande
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1792, Selle de Chevreuil à l’Allemande, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
A three-day marinade perfumes this lean saddle, but the roast lives or dies by its rosy center; the tray fond, cream, meat glaze, and one juniper berry make the sauce.
Main Dishes
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
72 hr 45 min
Active Time
35 min cook•73 hr 40 min total
Yield4 servings
Selle de Chevreuil à l’Allemande (marinated saddle of venison with cream and juniper) teaches one hard truth about lean game: three days of marinade can perfume the meat, but they cannot protect it from five minutes too many in the oven. The center must remain rosy. Everything else, the aromatic bed, the concentrated fond, the ivory sauce carrying one dark breath of juniper, exists to honor that roast.
The original assumed a whole saddle, a cold larder with hands available to turn it, a saucier beside a stockpot that never went cold, meat glaze ready, and a tammy for the sauce. At home, the joint becomes a four-serving saddle section, the larder becomes the refrigerator, oil-paper becomes parchment under a lid, prepared glace de viande replaces the perpetual stockpot, and a damp cheesecloth-lined sieve replaces the tammy. A salamander has no work here; the oven gives the meat its color. This is brigade scaffolding removed honestly. The three-day Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venison (No. 169) and the near-dry tray reduction stay, because they are the dish. A separate Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168) deglazes the tray safely without returning raw-meat marinade to the sauce.
One cook, one stove, one evening at the fire, after three quiet days in the refrigerator. Roast by temperature rather than pride, and withdraw the saddle before it looks fully done. That is the step that decides everything.
Selle de Chevreuil à l’Allemande belongs to the Parisian classical game table, where menu terms such as à l’Allemande identified a German-inflected treatment rather than a provincial French origin. The oil-and-vinegar marinade, cream, and juniper look east toward German-speaking venison cookery, while the near-dry tray reduction, meat glaze, and tammy-smooth finish follow French grand-kitchen practice. The title is sometimes mistaken for a German recipe copied whole, but it is a French codification of flavors long shared across the Rhine and the Alsatian border.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bone-in venison saddle section
Quantity
1 saddle section (3½ to 4 lb / 1.6 to 1.8 kg)
trimmed
fine sea salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons (10 ml / 12 g)
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1 teaspoon (5 ml / 2 g)
Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venison
Quantity
3 cups (720 ml / approximately 700 g) Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venison (No. 169)
freshly prepared
Cooked Marinade for Venison
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / approximately 120 g) Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168)
chilled and kept separate for deglazing
heavy cream
Quantity
1¼ cups (300 ml / 300 g), plus 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) held cold for rescue
juniper berry
Quantity
1
crushed to a fine powder
glace de viande (meat glaze)
Quantity
¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 1.5 g)
melted
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bone-in venison saddle sectiontrimmed | 1 saddle section (3½ to 4 lb / 1.6 to 1.8 kg) |
| fine sea salt | 2 teaspoons (10 ml / 12 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 2 g) |
| Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venisonfreshly prepared | 3 cups (720 ml / approximately 700 g) Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venison (No. 169) |
| Cooked Marinade for Venisonchilled and kept separate for deglazing | ½ cup (120 ml / approximately 120 g) Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168) |
| heavy cream | 1¼ cups (300 ml / 300 g), plus 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) held cold for rescue |
| juniper berrycrushed to a fine powder | 1 |
| glace de viande (meat glaze)melted | ¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 1.5 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Nonreactive dish just large enough to hold the saddle
- •Narrow stovetop-safe metal roasting tray
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Fine-mesh sieve and damp cheesecloth
- •Sharp carving knife
- •Long warmed serving platter
- •Small warmed sauceboat
Instructions
- 1
Marinate for three days
Season the saddle evenly with the salt and pepper. Set it in a nonreactive dish that holds it closely, surround and cover it with the Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venison (No. 169), then press parchment against the surface and cover the dish. Refrigerate for three full days, turning the saddle three or four times each day and redistributing the aromatic vegetables over it. The refrigerator is the honest replacement for the old cool larder; do not leave raw game at cellar or room temperature.
Use a glass, glazed ceramic, or stainless-steel dish. The vinegar in the marinade can react with bare aluminum or copper and leave the meat tasting metallic. - 2
Build the roasting bed
Take the saddle from the refrigerator 45 minutes before roasting. Lift out the aromatic vegetables from the Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venison (No. 169) and spread them over a narrow, stovetop-safe metal roasting tray. Set the saddle bone-side down on this bed. Pat the exposed meat dry so it can brown, then discard all the liquid that held the raw venison. Keep the separately prepared Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168) untouched for the sauce.
- 3
Roast to rosy
Heat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Roast the saddle for 15 minutes, until its exposed surface is deeply bronzed, then lower the oven to 375°F (190°C) and continue for 15 to 25 minutes. Begin checking early. Withdraw the saddle when an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the loin, clear of bone, reads 125 to 128°F (52 to 53°C); it should rise toward 130 to 135°F (54 to 57°C) as it rests. If the surface colors too quickly before the center is ready, cover only the browned meat loosely with foil. Do not lower the heat and hope indefinitely, because lean venison dries before it forgives.
- 4
Rest the saddle
Transfer the saddle to a warm long platter and cover it loosely with foil. Rest it for 15 to 20 minutes while you make the sauce. This pause is not idle time: the temperature evens through the loin and the juices settle, giving you rosy slices instead of a flooded carving board.
- 5
Reduce the tray
Set the roasting tray with its vegetables and fond over medium heat. Add the Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168), scraping firmly to release every browned deposit, then boil until the liquid has almost entirely disappeared and the vegetables look glazed rather than wet, about 5 to 8 minutes. Tilt the tray and spoon away the clear surface fat without disturbing the dark juices. If the reduction begins catching before it is nearly dry, pull the tray from the heat and add a spoonful of the measured Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168). Ça se rattrape. Loosen the fond before it turns black, because burnt bitterness cannot be strained away.
- 6
Finish and strain
Pour 1¼ cups (300 ml) of the cream into the tray and add the single powdered juniper berry. One berry only; juniper takes command very quickly. Simmer gently, scraping the tray, until the cream has reduced by one-third to about a scant cup (200 ml) and coats a spoon in a glossy veil. Add the melted glace de viande a few drops at a time and taste. If the acidic reduction makes the cream look grainy or oily, remove it from the heat and whisk in the reserved cold cream one spoonful at a time. Ça se rattrape. Press the sauce and softened aromatics through a fine sieve lined with damp cheesecloth into a warm saucepan, reproducing the smooth finish of a tammy without keeping obsolete equipment.
- 7
Carve and serve
Run a sharp knife closely along each side of the backbone to free the loins, then slice them across the grain into generous pieces. Arrange the slices against the bone on the warmed long platter so the saddle retains its shape. Pour the hot sauce into a warmed sauceboat and bring it alongside, letting each serving receive enough to pool beneath the meat without drowning its browned surface. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Ask for a compact bone-in saddle section from inspected farmed venison, trimmed but not stripped bare. The bone protects the underside and gives the platter its proper shape; the thermometer protects everything else.
- •Three days means three days. The active Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venison (No. 169) should not hold this joint beyond four days, or vinegar begins to soften the surface while the center remains unchanged.
- •Prepare the Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168) separately and keep it chilled until the roast comes out. Used raw marinade belongs neither in the finished sauce nor in the refrigerator for another meal.
- •Crush one juniper berry to powder just before it enters the cream. Two berries do not make the sauce twice as good; they make it taste chiefly of juniper.
- •An Alsace Pinot Noir suits the cream and woodland perfume without bullying the venison. Serve the saddle with a restrained potato purée or buttered spaetzle and let the sauce carry the plate.
Advance Preparation
- •Begin the Raw Marinade for Butcher’s Meat or Venison (No. 169) three days before dinner and turn the saddle three or four times daily. Keep it covered and refrigerated throughout.
- •The Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168) may be prepared in advance according to its own entry, cooled completely, and refrigerated separately until deglazing.
- •Set out the roasting tray, thermometer, sieve, cheesecloth, platter, and sauceboat before the saddle enters the oven. Once the meat comes out, its resting time is exactly the window needed to finish the sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 300g)
Calories
625 calories
Total Fat
38 g
Saturated Fat
20 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
17 g
Cholesterol
320 mg
Sodium
1420 mg
Total Carbohydrates
5 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
65 g
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