Complementing Your Lamb

Many chefs see lamb as an expensive choice. Yet lamb offers as many dish opportunities as beef, while suiting any budget. Scotch Lamb is quick to cook, tender and succulent. When correctly specified and trimmed it also offers a healthy option.

Roast lamb is a great favourite and offers a number of options – leg and shoulder joints, on the bone or boneless and rolled for easy carving. Rack of lamb always looks impressive. Here are our tips on how to make the most of Scotch Lamb.

• Choose your joint carefully – if you and your team are not confident in carving, get a boned and rolled leg joint, it will taste as delicious as bone-in and will be easier for portioning
• Remove the joint from the packaging and dry it. If vacuum packed, do this well before cooking to allow the meat to breate. Seal the meat at a high heat in a frying pan to trigger the Maillard reaction. Roast on a trivet with roasting vegetables and lamb bones in the roasting pan, for a traditional jus
• Don’t forget to baste and turn the joint every 20 minutes. Avoid piercing the meat during cooking

Try these fabulous ideas to make your lamb even tastier and more appealing to your customers:

Marinate

What it does – adds flavour

What to do – mix marinade. Place meat and marinade in a plastic bag. Refrigerate

What to use – curry paste, yoghurt and freshly chopped spring onion

Glaze

What it does – adds flavour, enhances visual appeal of cooked meat

What to do – brush the glaze over the meat a couple of minutes before end of cooking

What to use – sugar is essential for glazing, so try redcurrant or mint jelly, curry paste or your best taco sauce!

Accompaniments for lamb

What they do – enhance the meat’s natural flavours, enriching each other and the eating experience

What to do – use these great combinations to make your Scotch Lamb a real winner

What to use – slivers of garlic, sprigs of rosemary and/or anchovies can be pushed into slits cut in the meat. Try grinding grated lemon rind, root ginger and garlic, or mint and rosemary, into a paste to fill the slits. Serve with mint sauce and red wine gravy for a delicious dish

Bake with aubergines, tomatoes, courgettes, olives and garlic for a Mediterranean twist. Or pot roast with root vegetables or butternut squash and red onions

Flavoured butters also work well with lamb steaks and chops. Make by simply softening butter and folding through the grated rind of a lemon or lime, some thyme and rosemary. Or try some chilli paste and a few leaves of freshly torn basil.

In the ‘pink’

Lamb should be served pink wherever possible although the choice is for your customer to make. The principles of ‘doneness’ for lamb are the same as steak. To be absolutely sure, check the internal temperatures with a meat thermometer and use the steak guidelines.

Mutton

For centuries, mutton has been a significant part of the diet in many European countries and it does indeed make excellent eating. For some real menu innovation, see if your supplier can find some of these lesser known products:

Mutton: meat from the carcase of an older sheep, especially that of a mature sheep

Hogg or hogget: (i) young sheep (male or female), slaughtered before any permanent teeth have erupted. The classification scheme terms hoggets as old season’s lambs; (ii) a live sheep between the time of weaning and its first shearing

Mutton can be prepared in the same way as lamb using the recommended guidelines. When choosing your dish and cooking style, bear in mind that some sinews may be more overdeveloped than for lamb – a result of age – which does suggest that slower, ‘moist’ cooking styles are preferable.

Talk to your butcher about whether he can supply quality mutton from Scotland and the cuts and cooking methods he recommends.

Back to top