Panko crusted rack of lamb

My first attempt at a whole rack of lamb. Lamb is surprisingly easy to find in my neighborhood, but is usually only sold thinly sliced (for yakiniku or Mongolian bbq), or cut into little ribs or pricey chops. I've always wanted to try cooking a bigger cut, so now that there's a Costco nearby I knew I had to try rack of lamb. I followed an Emeril recipe for Mustard crusted lamb found on the Food Network site, substituting panko for regular breadcrumbs.

It was very easy to do, even easier than cooking individual lamb chops since after the initial preparation I just chucked it into the oven. I often complain about my little convection oven but for simple stuff like this it works just fine. Better than a real oven, really, because it doesn't heat up the whole apartment. I should use it more often.

Served with a salad of baby greens and chickpeas, new potatoes and asparagus dressed with olive oil and soy sauce. The sauce was made with mustard, soy sauce and the ume jam my student gave me, and the ume flavour went beautifully with the lamb.

The lamb turned out incredibly tasty, tender and succulent, and I loved the crunchy panko crust. But holy cow was it ever fatty! I do like my meat on the fatty side but this was a bit too much. The ume helped offset the richness but iot would have required a gallon of sauce to fully cut all that grease. I don't know if the chops I usually buy are less fatty than this, or if more fat is rendered from pre-cut chops during cooking than is rendered from a whole rack, or what. The chops I normally buy are from New Zealand and this rack was from Australia, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it? The rack was well trimmed, by the way, with only the thinnest layer of fat on the outside--the offending fat was in the middle of the chop (you can see some of it in the picture above). There seems to be no way to remove it before cooking since it's not on the outside of the chop, and I'd imagine that trying to render the fat out by cooking would result in tough, overcooked meat.

I'd like to cook this again, because other than the excess grease it was excellent. But is there any way to reduce the fat, or make it a little more palatable?

Comments

[kat]

very nice! Not too sure as to how you can decrease the oiliness, as I've never cooked a rack before.

[Marijoe]

Amy,
You could try using a baking rack , so all the fat drippings fall onto the baking pan and not back into the lamb. But be carefull about drying your wonderful rack.
I am "green" of envy after watching your beautiful balcony's pictures. I should try some gardening to see if the luck works also for me ;)

[bun]

I always roast these frenched racks and i trim ALL (to the point of obsession) the fat off before i crust it. The fat always gives the lamb a pronounced gamey flavor which i'm not a fan of, unless you grill it.
So get a sharp boning knife and slice all of the fat off. You really don't need to cook the lamb too long anyhow so don't worry about it drying out.

[ferroever]

I love rack of lamb. Blimey, can't believe you can source lamb but then again you do live in The Big Smoke.
By the way, I just glanced at your links bar and thought I saw a site called 'Chopstick Enema'. Had to look twice. Ah, Cinema.
I guess I've got my coffee stuff on the nou-miso!

[Liv]

Hello, Amy! I'm so happy I found your blog. I love cooking but find it a challenge sometimes here in Japan and have been looking for new Japanese-inspired recipes to try. Your balcony garden is also very inspiring; I've tried a few times to grow things on mine but to no avail. Anyway, thank you for sharing your delicious-looking recipes; I can't wait to try them out!

[Sherry]

I am so jealous. There is no lamb anywhere to be seen around here.

[Dani]

I've been reading your blog for a little while in preparation for moving to Nagoya (which we did last week!) and being Australian I figured I could help out here a little. The cut you have there is available in Australia but usually we buy the rack or the chops "frenched" which means the whole part up the long bone where you have pointed out the fat is removed. I noted Marijoe's comment about removing all the fat to obsession - what she is actually doing is doing the frenching herself - the cut in the picture is not "frenched." However, as with all meat of course, the more fat you remove the more flavour and tenderness you remove so it really depends what your recipe calls for (can you tell my cooking training is in French cooking lol?!)

A little hint which might be unusual - my favourite way to cook this cut or the cutlets is actually Tandoori - the fatty lamb flavour (which may be what is referred to as "gamey") actually goes beautifully as the tart lemon and tomato flavours and the gentle spice cut through it slightly but combine for a really unique, wonderful flavour. A good cool cucumber raita and real basmati rice to go with it are a must, though!

Thanks for the helpful blog!

[Amy]

Thanks for the hints! I will try trimming more fat from the outside, although I actually like having a little fat on the outside, especially when it gets all crispy. The problem is that the fat I was objecting to, and it's kind of hard to make out but a little bit of it is visible in the second picture, is not on the outside but in the middle of chop. And because of that it stayed pretty much uncooked, and it was the raw fat that I objected to. It seems that removing the fat would take away half of the chop itself. So I think the next time I get a rack this fatty I will divide the chops into twos or fours and cook it well. Does that sound about right?

[Andrew Abraham]

This looks AMAZING... Just ate lamb yesterday... but this look alot better..

Can you please pass along other lamb recipes to the members of recipebuddys.com

There have been some requests... actually all your recipes LOOK AMAZING

thanks
Andy