LAMB - Chops vs. a Roast

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Originally posted by lleechef

add 2/3 bottle of red wine. I like Yellow Tail shiraz.

Sounds great! What do you do with the other 1/3 of Yellow Tail shiraz.

Um.......I........drink it? Is that the right answer???

My mom always made a paste of dijon mustard and worcestire sauce for leg of lamb. first season the meat with garlic powder, salt and pepper.then spread on the paste. the aroma while it is cooking is irrestistible. beth

Alton Brown (Foodtv.com) had a pretty fair recipe for grilled boneless leg of lamb. Open it up; spread the inside with a mustard/garlic/mint/salt and pepper/some other stuff paste; roll it back up and tie it; grill. I tried it -- not bad.

Agree on Costco for the best lamb -- legs (only boneless), chops and racks. Better and cheaper than anything in the local markets.

Oh, i forgot the most important part; cut up 3 onions and place on the bottom of the roasting pan before you roast. beth

First of all, I get my lamb at either Sam's Club(Roast or Chops) or Trader Joe's (Rack). In the winter I like the 7-hour lamb (traditional french recipe) made on the stove top or roasted.

Summer: marinate that roast (now butterflied) in a wine-garlic-herb mxture and then thrown on the grill with various veggies. A little goat cheese on the side works well too and maybe some couscous.

Try this for the chops: spread a little dijon mustard on both sides and then dip in curry powder. Saute in hot olive oil for about 4 minutes a side for med rare. Juicy and luscious and oddly enough not a very strong curry flavor at all.

If I'm ambitious I make Emeril's "Potato shallot custards"...garlic and cream...what's better than that?

"twodales", now that sounds great (lambchops). Gotta try that one!

Thanks.

Don

Hey Old Fart, did you ever try the lambchops?

Love from sunny (!) Chicago, Twodales

Had a plate full of Mutton BBQ last nite...mixed with brisket and Pork Ribs. You can tell the difference easily, but it sure takes the Smoke very well. The folks in Central kentucky love their Mutton 'Que.
I have also enjoyed mutton in the heavy-duty soups/stews of the Nevada Basques. The Spring Lamb consumers may be in the two areas mentioned above, but Mutton has a broad base in the Mountain-west and some areas in the Ohio River Valley.

No one has specified which kind of lamb chops. My partner asks for small loin lamb chops, not the rib chops. Am I missing something? I season them before cooking with Lawry's garlic salt (the only brand I will buy), fresh ground pepper and dried oregano that I crush in the palm of my hand. The Farberware grill is so consistent that I cook just by time.

On Amtrak this past April I had a lamb shank, and it was the best meal out of 6 I had. Thanks for the recipe, lleechef.

The best lamb I ever had was the signature rack on Celebrity Cruise Lines. I don't usually get the rack due to cost, the fact that I think it should be cooked whole, and the fact that nobody else in the family will eat it. Celebrity does it right. I raise sheep, and sell most of my lambs for the Easter market. The Easter market prefers a very young lamb in the 30 to 35 lb range. The lamb you buy in the store comes from an animal in the 100 to 150 range or larger. A 35 lb lamb usually brings more than it would 3 months later at 100 lbs. Some 100 lb plus lambs I recently sold went for 1.15 lb live. My top 35 lb lambs go out in the 4 to 5 dollar per lb live range. Even average ones bring over $2. I have never tasted that baby lamb, but it must be very good indeed for people to pay the 15 to 25 dollars a pound that it goes for retail.

I have never tasted lamb, but am curious about it. I never see it in the markets here. Can its flavor be compared to any other meats? It's on the menu at the restaurant where we'll be having my office's holiday party, so I'd have a good opportunity to try it. I believe they offer a braised lamb shank. What does it taste like?

Cindy

Cindy, Lamb like other meat has a taste resulting from the food the animal ate. A lamb finished on grass, like the typical Australian product will have a more "gamey" flavor than one that spent some time in a feedlot like the typical USA product. In general, lamb has a flavor a lot like a grass feed beef. The cooking ideas that you read about to get rid of the stong lamb flavor apply more to the grass fed ,unfinished (and better for you) product. I once had a "steer" that had not been correctly altered. He got very mean when we locked him up to put him on feed. Early in the feeding process we used a feed with a high fish meal content. The plan was to gradually switch him over to a 95% corn feed, but he was so bad tempered that we shipped him early. His meat tasted a lot like lobster because of all the fish meal he had been eating.
There are also other considerations. The Australian product is usually a by product of their Merino based wool industry. All sheep are dual purpose, but the fine wool breeds don't taste as good as the coarse wool breeds do. The New Zealand lamb, often considered the world's best, usually comes from Romney based sheep. Romney wool is so coarse as to be often used in carpets. I am far from a lamb expert, but I have already told you enough to be very confusing. Were I to try lamb for the first time, I think I would do it at a good restaurant, because they will know how to buy it and to prepare it right. Good lamb is wonderful. Bad lamb smells like and old sock.

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Loin chops are best just plain grilled, MR, with a little salt pepper and fresh garlic. Why mask the taste of these beauties with sauces and the such!

I'm with you 100% on that! I usually make four of them on the grill and eat them all by myself (the rest of my family has no interest in lamb, which is all the better for me.)