The cookingbites recipe challenge: lamb or goat

[TastyReuben]

Its strange to me to hear this, as in the UK lamb, ground or in other forms is available in every supermarket. But I suppose in the US, lamb isn't farmed very much. I ought to know why that is but I'm not sure I do.

It’s something that can be found easily enough, just not in great quantities, so someone buys a couple of pounds of ground lamb, that might be all the ground lamb in the store until the next delivery.

I’m sure you’re familiar the long open refrigerated meat cases grocery stores have. My small Kroger has three center-floor ones and four along the back wall…meat for miles!

You know how much space is reserved for lamb? About a 2-foot x 3-foot space. That’s it. That’s for probably three little packages of chops, maybe one small roast of some sort, and a couple of packages of ground. That’s it.

Bison is considered a specialty item…we have as much bison at the store as we do lamb. Less variety, but as much of it by space.

I’ll have to take a pic next time I’m in town.

 

[JAS_OH1]

It’s something that can be found easily enough, just not in great quantities, so someone buys a couple of pounds of ground lamb, that might be all the ground lamb in the store until the next delivery.

I’m sure you’re familiar the long open refrigerated meat cases grocery stores have. My small Kroger has three center-floor ones and four along the back wall…meat for miles!

You know how much space is reserved for lamb? About a 2-foot x 3-foot space. That’s it. That’s for probably three little packages of chops, maybe one small roast of some sort, and a couple of packages of ground. That’s it.

Bison is considered a specialty item…we have as much bison at the store as we do lamb. Less variety, but as much of it by space.

I’ll have to take a pic next time I’m in town.

Please do take a look. Up until about 10 days ago I could find it easily, and it was cheaper then.

 

[TastyReuben]

The other thing, too - in addition to the pre-wrapped stuff and the cryovac’d stuff, we have a “fresh meats” butcher’s display case, with steaks and big piles of ground meat laid out, pork chops, a big display of bacon - that’s where you go if you want, say, 12 ounces of ground beef, because all the packs are one or two pounds, or you want a single steak, etc. It’s more like the custom area, because you can say things like, “I’d like two ribeyes, that one two in from the back and…that one at the top.”

Guess how much lamb is in there. None. Nada. Zip. All the lamb is cryovac’d and shipped in. Nothing ground in-store, nothing packaged in-store.

 

[TastyReuben]

Please do take a look. Up until about 10 days ago I could find it easily, and it was cheaper then.

I just checked my Kroger app (I know you don’t have them, but that’s where I’d go), and none of their lamb offerings show out of stock, and their app is usually pretty accurate.

 

[msmofet]

I went to a different Aldi while out working today, no ground lamb (they had a huge shoulder but it was too much meat for us and I don't have a recipe I want to do for it). Went to Acme Fresh Market, they had lamb shanks for $10.99 lb ($3 more a lb I usually pay) and no ground lamb! Sigh. I have a little work tomorrow so I will try elsewhere, but this is a bit discouraging.

My store will grind any meat you want. Just bring them say a london broil, flank steak, b/s chicken breasts, etc. and they will grind it. Not sure what cut would be best when it comes to ground lamb. I like to get ground meat when they are having a sale on something. Example - they use all the scraps for the ground beef. So you can get prime rib, filet mignon, sirloin, rib eye, etc. for the price of regular ground beef.

 

[JAS_OH1]

My store will grind any meat you want. Just bring them say a london broil, flank steak, b/s chicken breasts, etc. and they will grind it. Not sure what cut would be best when it comes to ground lamb. I like to get ground meat when they are having a sale on something. Example - they use all the scraps for the ground beef. So you can get prime rib, filet mignon, sirloin, rib eye, etc. for the price of regular ground beef.

My stores (except Aldi) do the same, but the only lamb that's been available had large bones (shank, legs, shoulder) and a good amount of fat and connective tissue. I've never seen lamb sirloin or lamb filer mignon anywhere, but medtran49 tenderloin in Florida somewhere and it wasn't cheap.

I've had beef ground by Acme and Giant Eagle multiple time over the years.

Edited: and the price of a shank was $10.99 lb now. Last time if was $7.39.

 

[JAS_OH1]

I just checked my Kroger app (I know you don’t have them, but that’s where I’d go), and none of their lamb offerings show out of stock, and their app is usually pretty accurate.

Yep, correct, no Kroger here.

 

[JAS_OH1]

My store will grind any meat you want. Just bring them say a london broil, flank steak, b/s chicken breasts, etc. and they will grind it. Not sure what cut would be best when it comes to ground lamb. I like to get ground meat when they are having a sale on something. Example - they use all the scraps for the ground beef. So you can get prime rib, filet mignon, sirloin, rib eye, etc. for the price of regular ground beef.

Just for the heck of it, I called Acme Fresh Market and asked them if they ever got specialty lamb cuts like sirloin or roasts, and they said no. They said that they might be able to special order it for me but he would have to check with the meat manager, who is off today. I asked him if I were to special order a lamb roast if they would be able to grind it for me, and he said it was doubtful, since they don't grind meat from different animals in the same grinder without having to clean it both before and after. He said if the meat manager agreed that they could do this, there would likely be a surcharge since they would have to clean the grinder twice, but he had no idea what that cost would be (if the manager even agreed to do it).

And I did find that Giant Eagle has ground lamb for almost $10 lb, which is $4 more per lb than I normally pay at Aldi (when they had it in stock). I was going to go work for awhile today and look at a different Aldi (after 2 stores have been out), but my youngest daughter and her husband asked what we were doing for dinner tonight and we invited them over, so I rescheduled my work for tomorrow. Anyway, if Aldi up there doesn't have any ground lamb, then Monday I will bite the bullet and buy the ground lamb from Giant Eagle because I really want to make these Asian style lamb tacos. Not just for this challenge, but for me, because I have an idea of how they are going to taste and it's not something I have ever done (or seen) before, so curious if the actual taste and my idea of how they are going to taste match, LOL!

 

[msmofet]

Just for the heck of it, I called Acme Fresh Market and asked them if they ever got specialty lamb cuts like sirloin or roasts, and they said no. They said that they might be able to special order it for me but he would have to check with the meat manager, who is off today. I asked him if I were to special order a lamb roast if they would be able to grind it for me, and he said it was doubtful, since they don't grind meat from different animals in the same grinder without having to clean it both before and after. He said if the meat manager agreed that they could do this, there would likely be a surcharge since they would have to clean the grinder twice, but he had no idea what that cost would be (if the manager even agreed to do it).

And I did find that Giant Eagle has ground lamb for almost $10 lb, which is $4 more per lb than I normally pay at Aldi (when they had it in stock). I was going to go work for awhile today and look at a different Aldi (after 2 stores have been out), but my youngest daughter and her husband asked what we were doing for dinner tonight and we invited them over, so I rescheduled my work for tomorrow. Anyway, if Aldi up there doesn't have any ground lamb, then Monday I will bite the bullet and buy the ground lamb from Giant Eagle because I really want to make these Asian style lamb tacos. Not just for this challenge, but for me, because I have an idea of how they are going to taste and it's not something I have ever done (or seen) before, so curious if the actual taste and my idea of how they are going to taste match, LOL!

I have never seen those lamb cuts either. But when there is a sale on lamb, my store does most of the butchering. So I would think scraps from all the different chop varieties they cut and leg of lamb (boneless or butterflied) etc. would go into ground lamb packages.

 

[JAS_OH1]

I have never seen those lamb cuts either. But when there is a sale on lamb, my store does most of the butchering. So I would think scraps from all the different chop varieties they cut and leg of lamb (boneless or butterflied) etc. would go into ground lamb packages.

Here in NE Ohio, lamb is not a popular meat so our stores do not butcher lamb (like TastyReuben mentioned for his area in SW Ohio). It's just a midwest thing, I suppose. People love their chicken, pork, and beef up here. Our stores get everything shipped in from Australia already in cryovac packages. You have to buy the entire leg of lamb or shanks (or rack of lamb) already in sealed cryovac packagin, and the chops come in trays with cryovac plastic on them. Same with the ground lamb, prepackaged.

 

[TastyReuben]

Yeah, if I want butchered lamb, I have to buy it directly from the farmer, or the farmers’ market. That ground lamb I used for both my recipes was born, raised, and ground right here in Ohio.

 

[msmofet]

I'm lucky to have 2 Stew Leonard's stores around me. When they have butterflied leg of lamb on sale, I jump. They do butchering. The meat is wonderful. They also have Prime aged cuts of beef.

 

[JAS_OH1]

Yeah, if I want butchered lamb, I have to buy it directly from the farmer, or the farmers’ market. That ground lamb I used for both my recipes was born, raised, and ground right here in Ohio.

There is a sheep farm about 25 miles here that I have passed a few times when I was working out of town. I have always meant to check it out, but normally when I am heading back to town it's already evening. Maybe I will give them a call when we have more freezer space and get several pounds of various cuts. I can't see driving 50 miles round trip for a pound of lamb, LOL! But then again, I suppose I should start small just to check the quality and taste before investing in a larger amount. Meanwhile, hoping that Aldi on the north side of town will have some. I do like that Aussie lamb quite a bit.

 

[TastyReuben]

There is a sheep farm about 25 miles here that I have passed a few times when I was working out of town.

It’s also worthwhile to check any little Amish-style markets - that’s where I got mine (Yutzy’s in Plain City, western side of Columbus metro) - I asked where it came from, since it was wrapped in standard butcher paper, and she said all their fresh meat like that came from right around there.

 

[JAS_OH1]

It’s also worthwhile to check any little Amish-style markets - that’s where I got mine (Yutzy’s in Plain City, western side of Columbus metro) - I asked where it came from, since it was wrapped in standard butcher paper, and she said all their fresh meat like that came from right around there.

Interesting, I have never seen any sheep on Amish farms around here. I am guessing up in Cleveland at West Side Market (huge market with several meat vendors) they would have it. I haven't been up there in a long time. That place is a lot of fun for a foodie!