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Rack of Lamb


happyjillin

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It's the real deal, unlike some of the vendors around here try to pawn off as lamb. From Soriana and they are Mexican not imported and about 1/3 of the cost from a certain store here. There are 2 racks per package and I partially thaw them to separate and put one back in the freezer. BBQ to die for!

IMG_1180.jpg

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1 hour ago, happyjillin said:

It wasn't a mudsling. I know what real lamb is from lengthy experience and I bought from the other store and from other vendors here.

I am amazed that lately I find myself agreeing sometimes with Happy. Those of you who know our web boards’ history with each other understand why this surprises me.  In this case I did not read his first sentence as “mud slinging.” It seemed to me that he offered his opinion of “some” local lamb sellers — and it was not even snarky. 

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9 hours ago, ComputerGuy said:

Perhaps I over-reacted, knowing his history as Pedro, and his regular jabs and judgmental pronunciations. But I did thank him for the tip.

I understand, CG. I was touchy too at first. Then I figured, hey we’re all getting old. As they said on Ally McBeal, “Bygones.”

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What do you mean by the local vendors pawning off something that is not lamb?  Does that mean they sold you full grown sheep and told you it was lamb or they sold you beef and claimed it to be lamb.  I ask because last week I was in the Chapala mercado which is of course now on the plaza while they refurbish the mercado.  I bought a whole lamb shank and got them to slice it in thin steak slices leaving the bones in, and I cooked them in the crock pot, and they were delicious, super tender, and the real deal.  Later with the bone and meat broth and left over meat we will be enjoying wonderful lamb stew for the next few days. I might even try that again next month.  ¡Qué rico!

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8 hours ago, dichosalocura said:

What do you mean by the local vendors pawning off something that is not lamb?  Does that mean they sold you full grown sheep and told you it was lamb or they sold you beef and claimed it to be lamb.  I ask because last week I was in the Chapala mercado which is of course now on the plaza while they refurbish the mercado.  I bought a whole lamb shank and got them to slice it in thin steak slices leaving the bones in, and I cooked them in the crock pot, and they were delicious, super tender, and the real deal.  Later with the bone and meat broth and left over meat we will be enjoying wonderful lamb stew for the next few days. I might even try that again next month.  ¡Qué rico!

If you need to cook it in a crock pot,it ain't lamb. True lamb is tender in the entire carcass. In Alberta I always purchased a half carcass directly from the farmer and cut it to my liking and absolutely none of it was tough when I BBQ'd it including roti' on the larger pieces. I have never seen lamb being sold  in the Chapala Mercado in my 13 years here,just goat and those aren't the people that pawn off their goat as lamb. Goat is goat there. I said SOME local vendors. pictured is a goat Carcass at the corner outside  at the Mercado.

bought the leg off this goat at chapala mercado.jpg

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Happyjillin, you are absolutely correct at saying you will not see lamb hanging up like that at the Chapala mercado.  You would need to speak Spanish or at least know the right words to say to ask for it.  In Venezuela we always called it cordero, but in Mexico, they commonly call it borrego but cordero is often times used too especially on packaging.  In the plaza, when they have it, they usually will have it at the bottom of their meat freezer.  Just ask.  Many of the carnecerías in Chapala may have some frozen or they can promise to order some for you.  Carnecería Popular often times will hang a sign that says Lamb in English from time to time.  I got mine from the first carnecería as you enter the market from the front entrance, they are one if my favorite carnecerías in Chapala.  Btw, I chose to cook my lamb leg that was cut up in slices in a crock pot because leg is full of muscles and tendons and the preferred cooking method for meat of that kind is long and on low heat to insure tenderness.  I also wanted to make a wonderful lamb broth from the meat and bones for a stew, hence the use of a crock pot.

Also, lamb has a very distinct taste, which it is hard to confuse it with beef if cooked in its own natural flavors without covering up its flavor with powerful spices and such.  So, yes what they sold me was definitly lamb, no question about it.  They also had goat, but goat meat tends to be more boney and more bland and possibly more beef like in flavor without the intense gamey flavor of lamb.  So, no, they aren't that hard to tell apart.

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8 hours ago, happyjillin said:

If you need to cook it in a crock pot,it ain't lamb. True lamb is tender in the entire carcass.

Obviously it depends on the cut.

Next to grilled racks, my favorite part of the lamb is the shank.  Which I cook low and slow in a crock pot (or low oven) with white beans and thyme, etc.  It is better than veal osso buco IMO.  

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I have never in my entire life confused beef with lamb. I  am completely familiar with every kind of meat including a lot of wild game like bear,moose,elk deer, antelope and 3 different kinds of rabbit and then there's the wild birds. And in Mexico lamb is called cordero like it says on the package in my OP in case you didn't notice. Yes one can cook anything the way one wants too but the point I was making was that real lamb is very tender and doesn't require the kind of cooking that requires the use of crock pots to make it so. All muscle is in fact the meat that one eats not the tendons. Hind leg of lamb I have done in the oven Moroccan style served with cous cous.

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Jillin....actually the correct name for the cut of lamb / goat shown in your most recent photos is the  “ saddle “.....it becomes the loin or rack when it has been split , cleaned and the chine / spine bones removed ...probably  along with the 7 / 8 prime rib of beef roast the most classic of the meat cuts .

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1 hour ago, happyjillin said:

I have never in my entire life confused beef with lamb. I  am completely familiar with every kind of meat including a lot of wild game like bear,moose,elk deer, antelope and 3 different kinds of rabbit and then there's the wild birds. And in Mexico lamb is called cordero like it says on the package in my OP in case you didn't notice. Yes one can cook anything the way one wants too but the point I was making was that real lamb is very tender and doesn't require the kind of cooking that requires the use of crock pots to make it so. All muscle is in fact the meat that one eats not the tendons. Hind leg of lamb I have done in the oven Moroccan style served with cous cous.

Happy, in common Mexican parlance, a sheep is a borrego and a lamb is a borreguito.  Just as dichosalocura mentioned several hours ago, upthread.  Cordero is used--as she also mentioned--in marketing parlance, to make it sound more elegant--just as it's marketed in big letters on the package you bought.  Look at this link, if you don't believe dichosa or me.  
https://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=borrego 

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Also, to really throw this conversation in a different direction, talking about borregos, in Chapala, the local people don't usually refer to the lake's pelicans as pelícanos so much as they would call them borregones or big ole sheep in English, which is my best approximation for a proper translation.  Now what we need is a good recipe for pelican!

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