A rack of lamb or carré d'agneau (though this may also refer to other cuts) is a cut of
lamb
Lamb or The Lamb may refer to:
* A young sheep
* Lamb and mutton, the meat of sheep
Arts and media Film, television, and theatre
* ''The Lamb'' (1915 film), a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in his screen debut
* ''The Lamb'' (1918 ...
cut perpendicularly to the spine, and including 16 ribs or
chops
CHOPS is the stage name of Scott Jung, also known as Scott Chops Jung, an Asian American hip hop producer, rapper and former member of the Asian American Hip-Hop group, the Mountain Brothers. Jung grew up in Philadelphia and has Chinese ancestry ...
. At retail, it is usually sold 'single' (sawn longitudinally and including the 8 ribs on one side only), but may also be sold as a "double rack of lamb", with the ribs on both sides. Alternatively, two French trimmed racks may be placed together with the ribs interlinked; when configured this way it is often known as a '
Guard of honour' .
[James Peterson, ''Glorious French Food: A Fresh Approach to the Classics'', 2002, p. 508-9]
Rack of lamb is usually
roasted
Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least from an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelizatio ...
, sometimes first coated with a herbed breadcrumb
persillade
Persillade () is a sauce or seasoning mixture of parsley (french: persil) chopped together with seasonings including garlic, herbs, oil, and vinegar.
In its simplest form, just parsley and garlic, it is a common ingredient in many dishes, part ...
. The tips of the bones are sometimes decorated with paper frills called
manchettes.
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Crown roast
Two or three single racks of lamb tied into a circle make a "crown roast of lamb".
Crown roasts are sometimes cooked with (ground-lamb) stuffing in the middle.
Frenching
Rack of lamb is often French trimmed (also known as Frenching in the United States), that is, the rib bones are exposed by cutting off the fat and meat covering them. Typically, three inches (7–8 cm) of bone beyond the main muscle (the rib eye or
Longissimus dorsi
The longissimus ( la, the longest one) is the muscle lateral to the semispinalis muscles. It is the longest subdivision of the erector spinae muscles that extends forward into the transverse processes of the posterior cervical vertebrae.
Structu ...
) are left on the rack, with the top two inches (5 cm) exposed.
See also
*
List of lamb dishes
This is a list of lamb and mutton dishes and foods. Lamb and mutton are terms for the meat of domestic sheep (species '' Ovis aries'') at different ages. A sheep in its first year is called a lamb, and its meat is also called lamb. The meat of a ...
Notes
Lamb dishes
Cuts of lamb
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