On this episode of "Name That Meat": are these lamb chops?

[Lost in China]

I bought some more mystery meat. I know it's sheep, other than that I don't know. I judge from the bones that these are lamb chops? I sure hope so, I want to make rack of lamb lollipops on Sunday for my first BBQ of the year. However it's not clear if this is lamb or mutton.

I know maybe it's hard to see with the packaging on but they're still frozen solid in one big mass. I put them in the fridge to thaw and can show them uncovered tomorrow.

[EdF]

That, or maybe a breast, from the look of the bones. BTW, some of us prefer mutton to young lamb - more flavor!

[Steve B]

I just want to know where are you finding all of these mystery meats?

[Lost in China]

Import shops. They have freezers of whatever they bought from distributors. Usually the lamb is New Zealand, but this is from Inner Mongolia. Moreover other countries cut the animal differently and thus cuts we're used to don't exist. Hence all the meat weirdness that I don't know what to do with.

[Craigar]

Whoa! Lost in China you truly do live in the land of mystery meat!

[EdF]

Kind of cool though, isn't it?

[Jerod Broussard]

"Salad's got nuttin' on this mutton"

[Steve Vojtek]

I like this "Name That Meat" game..
To me they look like a couple of racks of lamb - or mutton same cut Meathead uses for his lamb lollipops.

[Steve Vojtek]

My favorite way to eat them is crumbed. It's and Aussie thing and they're really delicious.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/food/sydney-taste/aria-restaurants-matt-moran-shares-his-easytoprepare-crumbed-lamb-cutlets-recipe/news-story/7399b4ed6c9c1a7213865cc7511f74cd

[Lost in China]

I certainly hope so! However I showed the shop owner a photo of rack of lamb and he said he didn't have it. I got this from his freezer anyway. I want to make the lollipops for my first cookout of the year. I've really grown as a cook and I want to knock everyone's socks off with this one.

[Michael Brinton]

I guess a good test would be how big are they. It's hard to tell from the picture but lamb racks are pretty small. The bones look right for lamb racks. Mutton ribs, which I've only seen on tv had the look of pork ribs, surrounded by meat. If you've got two you can try the first rare, if it's tough try the other more like a pork rib cook. Just a guess...

[Lost in China]

They finally finished thawing and I pulled them apart. Is this lamb chops? I thought there were only 8 bones, but this one has 13. Mutton ribs perhaps?

[Steve Vojtek]

OK bear with me here as I'm learning with you as we go along. I did some quick research and what you have here is a full ribcage cut in half. A sheep has 13 ribs. A rack of lamb or mutton are usually ribs 5 - 12 . The first 4 are used as ribblets. The numbers start at the front of the animal so ribs 5 - 12 are from the rear of the ribcage. Here is a couple of links:
http://www.cheftalk.com/t/57703/the-...m-rack-of-lamb
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...9/foodanddrink

The second link shows a guy butchering a whole lamb and he cuts the rear of the ribcage for the rack.
How to determine the front from the rear is the chalenge as I'm not a butcher.
Maybe someone with more experience can help.

[Lost in China]

Rack of lamb, rib roast, or rib chops?

I've searched for riblets, they're not on this site. Searching other sites tells me recipes with a rub and grilled over high heat for a few minutes a side. No slow cooking or internal temperature guide.

Well, I'm going to trim all the fat and put Dolly's lamb rub on it anyway. I'll cook it as though it were rack of lamb. We'll see what happens! I might have trouble hacking through that spine though. If there's no way to tell which end is which I'll just roast the riblets the same way. This could be a colossal disaster tomorrow, who knows. LOL. It's these little things that make life worthwhile. China just likes to throw surprise after surprise at you and see how you react.

[Steve Vojtek]

Good plan. Stick to the recipe and it will turn out great. I'm thinking the reason for ribs 5 - 12 could be purely an aesthetic one. Something the Mongolians maybe don't worry about. I think I like them cause I eat with my mouth not my eyes and if I can have 13 instead of 8 mutton ribs I'll take that. Let us know how it turned out. Life would be boring without challenges.....
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[Steve Vojtek]

Judging by your pic the spine has been removed and you should be able to cut between the bones..

[HorseDoctor]

What you have there appears to be a "Frenched" rack of lamb. Frenched meaning the ribs have been cleaned. Chine (spine) appears to be removed so easy to cut into "lollipops" if that's what you want. Looks awesome to me!

[Lost in China]

Great answer, HorseDoctor it turned out that's just what they were! There was this additonal flap of meat below the fat/skin cap, I didn't know what to do with it. It was definitely not part of the chop because it separated cleanly. It was a flat thin piece, and I decided to season it and cook it just like the chops. There was fat on the outside but I didn't see any way to separate it without a Ginsu knife and ninja knife skills. I cooked and seared it just like the lamb chops and it seemed to come out OK. A bit too chewy for me from the connective tissue adhering to the meat, but my guests didn't seem to mind and ate them enthusiastically.

I trimmed and trimmed, took forever, and finally cut the ribs into two-segment pieces. I didn't know which one were the riblets and nobody could tell the difference taste-wise. Some of them were triples because of the 13 ribs. Actually the second rack only had 12 ribs. Also there was a big slash right through the meaty part of the chop on one of them, a worker screwed up. I worked around it as best I could.



Season them up with Dolly's Lamb Rub. This stuff is just perfect, several guests commented on the superior spices. Like, the meat was good but the seasoning made it great. I didn't have any paprika so I left it out, from what I've heard it's just for color and makes little difference in the taste.



Now on the grill...



And after...ready for searing.



You can see the two chops on the left have the extra meat flap still attached. I saved one of those for me. They got up to temperature (115-120) really fast, about 30 minutes with the grill at 225. I didn't use any water, I guess that is for long cooks.



The searing took a lot longer than I thought it would. I guess the fire wasn't hot enough. When I finished the chops still weren't at the right internal temperature. I thought the hot fire would drive up the temp, but they weren't above 115 and many of them were less. So, back on they went to get up to 130, to the howls of protest from the hungry crowd. They looked like this when I pulled them off.



And on the inside, where it counts:



You can see it was perfectly done in the middle and crusty and crunchy on the outside. I really hit it out of the park. Meathead's techniques and recipes are just perfect. Also credit goes to David Parrish for his video on preparation. It really helped seeing someone else do this. I was especially entranced by the chops searing, wreathed in flame. I didn't know you could do that. I thought the spices and the surface of the meat would char. As it was, a couple of my chops got a bit charred on the spices, but I just peeled the afflicted parts off.

I was going to do the cold grate technique, but I had all these chops piled up on the back end of the grill, so I couldn't rotate it. I could only get 4 at a time to sear, and the space was too crowded. It's a good idea though. And good advice to put them back on to cook on indirect side after searing. I would have probably figured this one out, but it would have taken longer after a false start trying to carve them and people chewing gummy meat.

I used mesquite wood and sure enough I could smell that off aroma that people talk about. It didn't seem to affect the food any, though. It didn't have much smoke flavor but I was afraid of oversmoking.

So, a super successful cook with the mystery meat! And after I explicitly showed the seller a photo of lamb chops and he said he didn't have any. I just took a chance on the lamb with ribs sticking out of it...it sure looked like lamb chops. To be fair, these chops had much smaller meat on them than the monsters in the reference photo. A couple of chops were tiny indeed, just little nibs of meat. I was kind of worried about them because it seemed like not enough to eat. Nobody complained though.

A great success! Thanks to everyone who helped! I couldn't do this without the help of everyone here. In fact, I'm getting so well-known that a buddy of mine is going to get me on TV. He's on a local show that follows him around town, and he's going to talk the reporter in to coming to my BBQ. They'll do two parts: she'll take him to a Chinese shaokao (meat sticks like the ones in my avatar photo) and then he'll take her to my BBQ party on the veranda. I can't wait, it'll be awesome, I'll have to post a link to the show after we do it.

[Thunder77]

Beautiful!!

[Steve Vojtek]

Congratulations! 👏👏👏👏
You nailed it!
That flat thin piece of meat between the fat layers is normal for an untrimmed rack of lamb. I always buy mine untrimmed and unfrenched and do it myself. They're cheaper and I enjoy doing it myself. Its therapeutic like trimming a brisket or pork shoulder. Some people find it a PITA but I like it.
Your pictures look great and my stomach is growling and my mouth is drooling.
I'm looking forward to the show..

[BeachBlues]

No doubt about how they cut/trim meat in other countries. I love Indian food, especially tandoor chicken and curry goat. I can never tell what part of the animal the meat is from because it looks like they butchered it with a bat. Lots of small bone pieces. As far as what appears to have been a rack of lamb, (that looks quite tasty from your great pictures) what spells "USDA Inspected" in Chinese on the label?

[Steve Vojtek]

Curry goat sounds tasty...

[Lost in China]

BeachBlues The oval seal on the right of the plastic bag is the inspection. China doesn't have the USDA so they don't grade their meat choice/prime/etc. If there's a meat grading system I haven't heard of it.