Roast in Piece

A stuffed and roasted lamb shoulder with the ribs still attached is much easier to carve when the chine bone has been cracked and the breast and arm bones removed. Most butchers will do the cracking, but they may not be willing to take out the other two bones.

You can do it yourself with a sharp boning knife. The trick is to remove the bones but as little of the meat as possible. Since you’re working on the inside of the roast, it won’t matter if your boning efforts aren’t picture perfect.

Begin by placing the roast, rib bones down, on a work surface. The round end of the arm bone will be visible in the middle of the meaty portion on one side of the roast. You’ll be able to see and feel the long flat cross-section of the blade bone on the adjacent side. To get a rough idea of where these two bones connect, draw imaginary lines over the top of the roast that meet at about a 45-degree angle.

The goal is to free the meat above the blade bone far enough to expose where it joins the arm bone. At that point it helps to bend the joint so you can see where to cut through.

Use the blade and arm bones to make a flavorful stock to moisten the stuffing mixture, make gravy or for soup and other recipes. Making stock requires an hour of simmering, so bone the meat a couple of hours before stuffing and roasting.

1. Run a boning knife along the top of the blade bone to loosen the meat above.

2. Lifting the meat, continue cutting until you expose the breast bone and find the joint where it attaches to the round arm bone.

3. Cut the blade and arm bones apart at this joint, then remove the blade bone by cutting along the underside.

4. Trim around the arm bone, cutting the meat away until you can pull the bone free.

5. With these two bones removed, the stuffed, roasted meat is much easier to carve.

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Kitchen Tip

To make lamb stock, place blade and arm bones from lamb shoulder roast in 3-quart saucepan with 1 large onion, quartered, and 1 carrot, quartered. Cover with water and add salt and pepper to taste. Bring water to boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour. Makes about 4 1/2 cups stock.