The cookingbites recipe challenge: lamb or goat

Well I bought a pack of lamb T-bones, or loin chops.

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Hope to cook them up in the next day or so. Should be tasty!

mjb.
 
There's an American TV show some of you might be aware of called Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. I don't watch it often, but I was flipping through the channels and a restaurant cook was preparing lamb shanks. He mentioned that he had cleaned the lamb shanks. I really wasn't sure what that meant so I googled it and apparently soaking the lamb in a vinegar and water solution takes out some of the gameyness. I had red wine vinegar but we use that for salad dressing, and my Braggs apple cider vinegar is rather expensive, so I used some lemon juice concentrate and water. It really did make a difference. Anybody ever heard of this? I could see how it would really be helpful with an older lamb or mutton.
 
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JAS_OH1 said:
There's an American TV show some of you might be aware of called Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. I don't watch it often, but I was flipping through the channels and a restaurant cook was preparing lamb shanks. He mentioned that he had cleaned the lamb shanks. I really wasn't sure what that meant so I googled it and apparently soaking the lamb in a vinegar and water solution takes out some of the gameyness. I had red wine vinegar but we use that for salad dressing, and my Braggs apple cider vinegar is rather expensive, so I used some lemon juice concentrate and water. It really did make a difference. Anybody ever heard of this? I could see how it would really be helpful with older lamb or mutton.
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Yeah, very commonly done in Asian cooking
 
Another thing I found was about Frenching the lamb shanks. I did that. It not only made for a neater presentation, but in cutting the tendons it allowed for the meat to retain more juice since there wasn't so much connective tissue constraining and stretching it. And of course I removed as much fat and silver skin as I could. Always learning something new. This was only the second time I've prepared lamb shanks. I'll write up my recipe later today most likely.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I really wasn't sure what that meant so I googled it and apparently soaking the lamb in a vinegar and water solution takes out some of the gameyness.
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It's very odd to my ears to hear that anyone would want to remove the gaminess of lamb, which is very mild. The whole point of lamb is that it has a mild gamey taste which is delicious. But I know in the US tastes are sometimes very different.
 
Morning Glory said:
It's very odd to my ears to hear that anyone would want to remove the gaminess of lamb, which is very mild. The whole point of lamb is that it has a mild gamey taste which is delicious. But I know in the US tastes are sometimes very different.
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I like it somewhat, but I think depending on the age of the animal, what it was fed, possibly breed (I don't know much about that) and other factors can make it stronger flavored. Which is likely why lemon or other citrus is used in some recipes. I don't like game meat such as venison, and the first 10 times I tried lamb (a bite of lambchop from my husband's plate in restaurants) I wasn't wowed by it. The 1st time I ever cooked it was for his birthday (or maybe it was Valentine's Day) and a made a citrus, honey, ginger, garlic and soy marinade with a bunch of fresh herbs and it was wonderful. But, it was also a very small rack of Australian lamb that I cut into individual chops, so likely the meat wasn't gamey to begin with. These shanks were sizeable, and when I cut open the package I noticed they were gamey. Not the smell where they were going off or anything, just smelled stronger than what I'm used to. I didn't soak for very long and it still had a lamb scent, but not overpowering so. We were pleased with the result.
 
msmofet said:
Sometimes
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I as just reading up on it. Yes, age of the animal, diet, and breed all play a factor in the gamey flavor. These were pretty big shanks so im thinking it was an older lamb. Plus lamb chops never smelled this strong to me as shanks. The first time I cooked shanks they were smaller and not gamey smelling.
 
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