Simple Appeal of Rack of Lamb

I think properly prepared and presented, there is no more elegant cut of meat than a rack of lamb. It is the perfect romantic meal for two with candlelight and wine, I think. And it is the ultimate in ease of preparation if the butcher has done his job well.

Yet it is often overlooked in favor of far more complicated dishes for home entertaining. Even those of us who love lamb tend to have it more often when we eat out than at home.

One of the main reasons, I think, is that all too often butchers don’t do their job well. Lamb racks are often displayed totally untrimmed and looking ugly. Seldom is the chine bone removed but, unfortunately, only sawed through at intervals for ease of carving.

If the rib bones are “Frenched” (exposed) at all, it’s only slightly, seldom more than an inch, and the layer of fat that covers the rack is at best only slightly trimmed, never removed. The rack of lamb as it is presented in most American markets bears little resemblance to the rack of lamb presented at the table in a fine restaurant. If it did, butchers would sell a lot more of them, and they could charge a lot more, too.

Lamb Turning Dark

Once at a market where I worked, lamb racks with the standard trim, much like those I have just described, were “backing up” and turning dark in the case and the cooler. We just couldn’t sell them even at $3.29, a very reasonable price at the time.

As butchers often do when something doesn’t sell, I took a couple home for dinner. But before I did, I trimmed them the way that I wanted them on my plate. I totally removed the chine bone and all of the back fat clear down to the lean rib eye. The rib bones I Frenched clear down to inch from the rib eye. What I took home looked very like the raw version of a rack of lamb you would be presented in a fine restaurant.

Cooking such a rack of lamb is simplicity itself. I have developed a foolproof way. Marinate the rack for an hour or two or overnight, if you like, in a simple wine vinaigrette marinade with your favorite herbs. Mine are rosemary and thyme. Place the lamb rack under the broiler, rib side up, and broil 5 minutes. Turn the rack rib side down and broil an additional 5 minutes. Then turn the oven control from broil to bake. Bake at 500 degrees and continue cooking an additional 10 to 12 minutes. The rack comes out beautifully medium rare all the way through. An absolutely delicious and elegant dish, and it takes only about 20 to 25 minutes.

Testing the Concept

When I went back to the market the next day, I decided to do a cutting test on a couple of the racks still turning dark in the cooler. I trimmed them up the way I did the ones I had taken home the night before and then weighed them to see how much we would have to charge for them to make the same profit that we would have made if we had sold them with the traditional trim at $3.29. The price difference was rather staggering. Not counting the extra labor cost required for the extra trim, we needed to charge $9.89 a pound just to make the same profit margin.

We put the trimmed racks in the case in a wine marinade for $10.99 a pound. And you know what? We developed such a demand for lamb racks that we had to order extras just to keep up.

Butchers tend to forget sometimes, I think, that people taste things first with their eyes. If something really looks good, customers are much more apt to give it a try even if the price seems high. They take home a beautifully trimmed rack of lamb, cook it to perfection, and serve it as simply and elegantly as they easily can.

And when they see that the only waste from such a rack is a tiny rib bone gnawed naked of every speck of meat, they quickly realize that they have made a good buy. Again I say that properly prepared and presented, there is no more elegant cut of meat than a rack of lamb.