Lamb Shanks 450g – Melt in your mouth Texture – Slow Cook
Lamb Shanks 450g – Slow Braised Recipe is recommended – Beautiful
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Lamb shank, a cut from the shin of Lamb is one of the most flavourful cuts of lamb.
The Connective Tissue which gives lamb shank its flavour, also leads to toughness if not prepared correctly.
Lamb shanks needs to be cooked over low heat for a long time to become velvety, flavourful, and fall-off-the-bone juicy.
Lamb shanks is a favourite in Mediterranean cuisines, such as Greek, Italian, French, and Moroccan.
Because it has a bold, gamey flavour, it pairs well with warm spices, such as cinnamon and cloves, as well as bold herbs such as rosemary and mint.
What Is Lamb Shanks?
Lamb shanks is a tough cut from the lamb leg that becomes tender and juicy with slow and low cooking.
The fore shank comes from the front legs and is smaller than the hind shank, which comes from the back legs and is much meatier.
As with all hard-working muscles, lamb shank is full of connective tissue and collagen that requires stewing or braising.
The lamb shanks is typically sold cut, with the centre bone intact, and is cooked on the bone with little prep required.
Because lamb shanks requires long cooking times and a lot of patience, it is an inexpensive cut of lamb that is often overlooked compared to more easily grilled neighbouring cuts.
This makes lamb shank an affordable option for cooks who enjoy lamb, but avoid it due to the high price compared to other red meat such as beef and pork.
How to Cook Lamb Shanks
Due to its toughness and low fat content, braising lamb shank is the ideal way to enjoy it.
The braising liquid keeps the meat from drying out and the hours-long cooking over low heat gives the tough meat a chance to become tender and succulent.
Lamb shank typically comes bone-in, and braising gives the bone marrow a chance to melt into the braising liquid, transforming it into a rich and full-bodied sauce.
If you don’t want to braise, you can cook it for hours on low heat in the slow cooker to stew the meat.
Be sure to keep the lid on to retain moisture.
Similarly, it can be pressure-cooked with liquid.
Lamb shank shouldn’t be pan-fried or sautéed or else it will be too tough to chew.
Lamb Shank vs. Leg of Lamb
It is easy to confuse a lamb shank with a bone-in leg of lamb because they both come from the lamb’s legs.
The difference is that lamb shank is the portion just above the knee and usually contains less meat and more sinewy fibres than a leg of lamb which is adjacent to the sirloin and flank cuts.
Bone-in leg of lamb is a larger cut of meat that is already tender and well-suited to Oven Roasting whereas lamb shank is tough and is best-suited to braising.
Slow Cooked Lamb Shank
Lamb Shank Stew
lamb shanks in oven
lamb shank recipe
This is a recipe that I remember my now 77-year-old granny making me quite frequently when I would visit North England growing up.
I had some lamb that was perfect for stewing and the first thing that popped into my mind was cooking this lamb stew.
Damn, I loved eating this so much. As always I put a slight twist on it – she topped her version with choux pastry.
I went with the easier and cheaper dumplings.
I was always immersed in food.
My Dad fishes for salmon & trout, my mum was always in the kitchen making marmalade, jams and hearty dishes with venison and pheasant that my dad would also shoot / trade salmon for with fellow hunters.
It’s no wonder that at the age of 12 I went to my first cooking class. There I was in some local woman’s house, just me and 15 other girls. Gross!!
At least that’s what I thought at the time. I loved it though, so much so that I was soon cooking the family dinners on a regular basis!
Although when I look back upon it, I’m not sure if that’s because I loved it so much or because it gave my parents an opportunity to do tonic “tastings” to see which paired best with their gin
It wasn’t just my mum that got me interested in cooking. My aunt Margaret, Mum’s sister, gave me my 1st cookbook, appropriately titled just that!
You would find me in the kitchen making quiches, pizzas, chocolate cakes, rice pudding, steamed pudding with golden syrup and many other things.
Hold on, now that I list them off now, damn my folks did well!
My grandfather on my mum’s side was also a great influence to me.
We used to take walks to his bees (he was a beekeeper if you didn’t already guess) and on the way.
I always remember him jumping a wall that at the time looked about 22 foot high and out he would pop with a handful of spinach.
Cue the teasing about my little “bird eggs” for muscles and how I needed my spinach to be like Popeye.
MY BUTCHER
So, just over a week ago my butcher, Geoff down at the Street Farm markets gave me some lamb butt. Actually from the collar but it’s called butt.
Weird, I know!
He wanted to see what I could cook with it. The first thing that popped into my mind was my childhood visits to Scotland and my Grans lamb stew.
braising lamb shanks
