Help! Give me your lamb recipes/tips!

[diggitydot]

We're having a lamb butchered and I have ZERO idea how to cook it. The only recipes I'm familiar enough with to try are Greek or Cypriot dishes and a person can only eat so many gyros or kebabs.

Help!

[spotty_dog]

Lamb is my husband's favorite meat and I'm thinking of buying a 1/2 lamb for Father's Day! I roasted a leg of lamb last week and it was impressively easy, just roast with salt and pepper and a little rosemary or thyme. (Joy of Cooking recipe)

Lamb stew is terrific, we had this recipe as Thanksgiving dinner for two way back before kids: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...ts-shells-meat

Chops can be pan-fried like pork chops.

I made a pastitsio probably a year ago that was pretty decadent. Ground lamb in a casserole with bechamel, penne pasta, tomato sauce, and parmesan. (Everyday Food Fresh Flavor Fast cookbook recipe)

My favorite book on braises and stews (by Tori Ritchie) has recipes for lamb shanks with white beans, for spring lamb stew, Moroccan lamb tagine, ragu, lamb meatballs.

My second favorite braising book, originally recommended by cupcake right here on iMSN (All About Braising) has recipes for breast, leg, rib chops, shanks, shoulder chops, shoulder roast, and Merguez sausage. (If you have a KitchenAid mixer, the meat grinder attachment is kind of fun for making your own small batches of sausage.)

The toughest part for me would be deciding on the cuts. I think I'd just have the butcher do the most popular cuts, and then learn what you really use and adapt next time (I have a friend who ends up having most of her pork and beef ground because that's just what she uses the most.)

[diggitydot]

THANK YOU! This is exactly the information I need!

[spotty_dog]

Can you tell I've thought this over a million times? "DH loves lamb, but lamb is expensive, so I should buy a lamb, but then what do I do with all those cuts and things when I've only cooked lamb a handful of times in my life?!" I think you've given me the spur I need to just up and do it.

[diggitydot]

I'm really excited about this! I'm a pretty adventurous cook and I just want to make sure I don't over or under cook it. Should I just treat it like beef?

[spotty_dog]

Basically, yeah. My cookbooks say for medium-rare to take lamb out at 128 to rest, as compared to beef at 120-125. The whole hunk of meat has a pretty similar texture to beef when it's done, maybe a little more "squishy" than its doneness belies, if you know what I mean. And roasting the bone-in leg meant dealing with the complication of the bone (OMG the annoyance of getting the thermometer in an appropriate place! It was still a little undercooked right next to the bone...next time I'd give the roast more time to come to room temperature after taking it out of the fridge.)

[diggitydot]

I'm off to pin lamb recipes on Pinterest like a madwoman.

[Thirteen]

There's an amazing lamb kabob recipe by Lieberman on Food network. It's our go-to.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mrs. MD, Esq.]

Slow cooker curry--http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/indian-lamb-curry-50400000124238/

Just add 2x the seasoning!

[ballibeg]

Here's how ours go....

Neck on the bone for casserole in slow cooker usually with beans to make a cassoulet type dish.

Shoulder bone and rolled. I unroll, stuff and retie with butchers string. Roasted or slow roasted with spices our herbs.

Rack of lamb these chops best chined then trimmed. Coat in breadcrumbs and herbs then roast.

Rest of chops I like grilled.

Leg I prefer with chump on and I carvery butcher it by removing pelvis and shank. Roast with garlic and rosemary studded through skin.

Flank is for soup and stocks

Shanks in a red wine slow cooked sauce.


My favourite meat and we prefer a castrated 2 yr old. Deeper richer flavour.

Dave

[diggitydot]

Thank you! I was hoping you'd see this thread and comment.

We should be getting it from the butcher later this week. I can't wait to begin experimenting.

[Momo]

If you have a meat grinder then grind a lot up freeze it.

[Mrs. MD, Esq.]

If you have a meat grinder then grind a lot up freeze it.

Mmmm good call...lamb burgers, lamb tacos, lamb meat sauce...the possibilities are endless! If only I had a bigger freezer! ::le sigh::

[diggitydot]

We're having a LOT turned into burger.

[WolfpackWife]

I'm curious - how many pounds of meat will you get?