Ingredient: Lamb - butcher cuts |
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Category: Meat - Butchery, Lamb
Season: All
Lamb is often sorted into three kinds of meat: forequarter, loin, and hindquarter.
The forequarter includes the neck, shoulder, front legs, and the ribs up to the shoulder blade.
The hindquarter includes the rear legs and hip.
The loin includes the ribs between the two.
Lamb chops are cut from the rib, loin, and shoulder areas.
The rib chops include a rib bone; the loin chops include only a chine bone.
Shoulder chops are usually considered inferior to loin chops; both kinds of chop are usually grilled.
Breast of lamb (baby chops) can be cooked in an oven.
Leg of lamb is a whole leg;
Saddle of lamb is the two loins with the hip.
Leg and saddle are usually roasted, though the leg is sometimes boiled.
Roasted leg and saddle may be served anywhere from rare to well-done.
Forequarter meat of sheep, as of other mammals, includes more connective tissue than some other cuts, and if not from a young lamb is best cooked slowly using either a moist method such as braising or stewing or by slow roasting or American barbecuing.
It is, in some countries, sold pre-chopped or diced.
Traditional Cuts of Lamb:
Approximate zones of the traditional British cuts of Lamb:
Scrag end (of Neck)
Middle neck
Best end (of neck)
Loin
Chump (and chump chops)
Leg
Shoulder
Breast
Because of dramatically differing economic values of each type of animal (lamb being the most expensive), classification systems have developed to ensure consumers receive the product they have purchased.
The strict definitions for lamb, hogget and mutton vary considerably between countries.
In New Zealand for example, they are defined as follows:
Lamb — a young sheep under 12 months of age which does not have any permanent incisor teeth in wear
Hogget — a young male sheep or maiden ewe having no more than two permanent incisors in wear
Mutton — a female (ewe) or castrated male (wether) sheep having more than two permanent incisors in wear.
In Australia the definitions are extended to include ewes and rams, as well as being stricter on the definition for lamb which is:
Lamb — 0 permanent incisors; female or castrate entire male ovine 0-12 months
(Note! that the Australian definition requires 0 permanent incisors, whereas the New Zealand definition allows 0 incisors 'in wear'.)
Other definitions include:
Lamb — a young sheep that is less than one year old
Baby lamb — a milk-fed lamb between six and eight weeks old
Spring lamb — a milk-fed lamb, usually three to five months old
Yearling lamb — a young sheep between 12 and 24 months old.
The younger the lamb is, the smaller the lamb will be, however, the meat will be more tender.
Sheep mutton is meat from a sheep over two years old, and has a less tender flesh. In general, the darker the colour, the older the animal.
Baby lamb meat will be pale pink , while regular lamb is pinkish-red.
Matching Lamb to wine table |