Lamb?

[Jogeephus]

Anyone eat much lamb? Never eaten it but twice in my life so I'm a novice. Someone asked me to butcher three lambs on halves and I've found myself with a good bit of meat and just don't know what all to do with it. So far I've smoked a leg, made some basque stew, some loukaniko sausage, braised cutlets and made a pile of meat for gyros. Anything I need to try?

 

[dun]

Any coyotes around you could feed it to?

 

[Anonymous]

I butchered up one about 2 years ago. Did all the good cuts, made some ground lamb etc.
I made some stew with some trimmings to try it figuring stews can fix a lot. Boy was I wrong.
Gave away all the meat to a unemployed neighbor and have the other sheep that was still alive away.

 

[Crazy Farmgirl]

Any coyotes around you could feed it to?

Eat the coyote, it will probably taste better! :mrgreen:

 

[rla442]

I love lamb. Nothing like turning one on the spit with a drip pan underneath to catch all the drippins. Then dip some homemade bread in the drippins and thats some good eatin!

 

[slick4591]

I've tried it three or four times and it's always the same story. About the third chew I'm spitting it in my napkin.

 

[ga.prime]

I don't know about the rest of it but I like lamb chops. Marinate in olive oil, chopped garlic, rosemary, thyme, and salt and pepper for an hour or so and grill to medium rare- pretty awesome.

 

[alisonb]

I don't know about the rest of it but I like lamb chops. Marinate in olive oil, chopped garlic, rosemary, thyme, and salt and pepper for an hour or so and grill to medium rare- pretty awesome.

You've got it!

What cuts do you have left Jo?

 

[dun]

I don't know about the rest of it but I like lamb chops. Marinate in olive oil, chopped garlic, rosemary, thyme, and salt and pepper for an hour or so and grill to medium rare- pretty awesome.

If something is actaully fit to eat why do you have to camoflauge it?

 

[ga.prime]

It's not camouflage, it's complimentary flavors.

 

[Jogeephus]

I once I ate lamb and it had a strong taste and you needed to eat a whole jar of that mint jelly to mask it but this meat is really good.

AlisonB, I have a lot of chops, cutlets riblettes, hocks and legs. Someone told be braised hocks on rice was really good. I gotta say, so far everything I"ve had off these lambs has been wonderful.

 

[alisonb]

It's gotta be lamb, if it's reached the mutton stage you may just die from gagging :shock: :yuck:

I think lamb would be more popular if more people knew how to cook it properly. Jo, I'll post some recipes soon - have the ribs already been cut up or do you still have a full 'rack' as this is awesome on a braai?

 

[Jogeephus]

So what is mutton? That is what I must have had that one time when it tasted so strong. This is totally different.

I didn't know the best way to butcher them so I experimented with different ways. Some of the chops I left with long bones on them cause I saw some pictures with them done this way an that looked interesting. But for the most part I just have small sets of ribs about 5 inches in width and a foot or so long.

These were wethers. About 100 lbs each - I'm guessing.

I was told to quarter them rather than splitting them and then quartering like a cow. Here is what the quarters looked like. They were really fat and I was concerned about the fat having that off flavor in it so I didn't save a lot of the fat but now I wish I'd saved the caul fat cause there was a lot of that in them. I understand why they are so expensive because the cutout was terrible. With 140 lb pig I don't have half the waste as I did with one sheep that only weighed 100 lbs. I haven't weighed the meat but I doubt I got over 30 lbs of packaged meat on each one. That brings up another problem cause I don't know how much meat I'm supposed to steal with a lamb. I know with a cow I'm supposed to steal at least 200 lbs of ribeyes and t-bones but this is new territory for me and I don't know what is right and I don't want to come off as being greedy. ;-)

I cooked a leg of lamb yesterday and I rubbed it down with a rub made with olive oil, garlic and rosemary then dusted with some fresh thyme.

After bathing in pecan smoke I pulled it at medium. I wish I'd pulled it at 145 but its very tender and juicy and tastes great.

With such little yield, I couldn't see just tossing the scrap to the hog dogs so I cooked all of this down and picked the good meat out of the nooks and crannies of the bones and ended up with just under four pounds of meat which I made into a basque type stew and made some stock. Instead of using cayenne pepper I added some "Woman's Scorn" sauce I made earlier and this really set it afire. Pretty good stew. I canned that for this winter.

I'm really surprised at how good the meat tastes. It was a pleasant surprise for sure so I'll be looking forward to any good recipes or guidance you might have.

 

[Anonymous]

I did the primal cuts the same way. Just made more sense.
I didn't leave long rib bones though. Trimmed the rib roast down to 6" or so. Left the rest as a kind of short rib. Did the front shoulders as roast, and the rears as bone in medallions

 

[Jogeephus]

The front legs were confusing. I ended up cutting little steaks out of them but I was tempted to bone it out and make a rolled roast.

 

[Anonymous]

The front legs were confusing. I ended up cutting little steaks out of them but I was tempted to bone it out and make a rolled roast.

It wasnt bad boning them out. About like a deer. These were grain fed so there was decent meat in em but I didn't think there was enough up front to steak out. They were probably 2 years old too so far from "lamb"

 

[Jogeephus]

I imagine it tasted about like one of the one's I had in the past. It tasted like a gut shot buck in full rut that had been run by a pack of hounds for seven days.

 

[3waycross]

Had some friday night at a Greek dinner at the Elks lodge. It was great. I will try to get the recipe. I believe it was just a leg marinated and roasted. No off flavor at all!

 

[Anonymous]

The flavor of the meat was pretty good. It was the dang
Aftertaste I couldn't get over

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

So what is mutton? That is what I must have had that one time when it tasted so strong. This is totally different.

I didn't know the best way to butcher them so I experimented with different ways. Some of the chops I left with long bones on them cause I saw some pictures with them done this way an that looked interesting. But for the most part I just have small sets of ribs about 5 inches in width and a foot or so long.

These were wethers. About 100 lbs each - I'm guessing.

I was told to quarter them rather than splitting them and then quartering like a cow. Here is what the quarters looked like. They were really fat and I was concerned about the fat having that off flavor in it so I didn't save a lot of the fat but now I wish I'd saved the caul fat cause there was a lot of that in them. I understand why they are so expensive because the cutout was terrible. With 140 lb pig I don't have half the waste as I did with one sheep that only weighed 100 lbs. I haven't weighed the meat but I doubt I got over 30 lbs of packaged meat on each one. That brings up another problem cause I don't know how much meat I'm supposed to steal with a lamb. I know with a cow I'm supposed to steal at least 200 lbs of ribeyes and t-bones but this is new territory for me and I don't know what is right and I don't want to come off as being greedy. ;-)

I cooked a leg of lamb yesterday and I rubbed it down with a rub made with olive oil, garlic and rosemary then dusted with some fresh thyme.

After bathing in pecan smoke I pulled it at medium. I wish I'd pulled it at 145 but its very tender and juicy and tastes great.

With such little yield, I couldn't see just tossing the scrap to the hog dogs so I cooked all of this down and picked the good meat out of the nooks and crannies of the bones and ended up with just under four pounds of meat which I made into a basque type stew and made some stock. Instead of using cayenne pepper I added some "Woman's Scorn" sauce I made earlier and this really set it afire. Pretty good stew. I canned that for this winter.

I'm really surprised at how good the meat tastes. It was a pleasant surprise for sure so I'll be looking forward to any good recipes or guidance you might have.

Jo, Mutton = adult sheep. My dad grew up in the depression era and had to eat mutton and hated it. We've gotten him to eat lamb in his older years, as long as he didn't know what it was. My hubby is sort of in the same spot with lamb -- didn't get the good stuff as a kid. I LOVE good American, grain-fed lamb. The stuff that comes over from Australia to our markets borders on mutton. Sending you a link to an excellent leg of lamb recipe, that I've made at least half a dozen times, and enjoyed it every time. Also, mid-east recipes for shish-ka-bobs using lemon in the marinade is good. http://www.food.com/recipe/leg-of-lamb- ... gar-445847