lamb · Primal
Lamb Breast
The same part of the animal as pork belly, at a fraction of the attention.
This is the underside of the ribcage — the lamb equivalent of pork belly or a beef short plate. It is alternating sheets of fat and thin muscle rather than a solid piece of meat, which makes it the cheapest part of the carcass and the one that tastes most emphatically of lamb.
On the animal
Every other region is a link to that primal. The full butcher chart puts beef, pork and lamb side by side.
Fat and muscle here come in alternating sheets, because this part of the body holds the organs in rather than moving anything. There is no thick muscle to cook to a number, so the usual question — how done do you want it — does not really apply. The only question that matters is whether the fat has rendered.
That takes time at a low temperature: somewhere under 300°F for two to three hours, while the sheets of fat melt out and baste the muscle between them until the meat gives way at the bone. Rush it and you get chewy meat sitting in fat that never left. Overshoot and there is very little here to dry out, which makes this a forgiving cut once you have committed to going slow.
It is the most strongly flavoured part of the animal, and that is not an accident. What people mean by “lamby” comes from branched-chain fatty acids that sit in the fat rather than the lean. This is the fattiest cut there is, so it delivers the most of it. If you like lamb, it is the best value on the carcass by a distance. If you are cooking for someone who is unsure about lamb, start them somewhere else entirely.
Two ways to finish it. Low roast the whole way and let the outside crisp as it goes. Or braise until tender, press it cold under a weight, then cut it into pieces and fry them hard — more work, better result, because the fat has already gone and the crust has somewhere to form.
How it eats
Rich and fatty, and the most strongly lamb-flavoured thing on the animal. The texture is soft and layered rather than meaty — closer to pork belly or spare ribs than to anything you would call a roast.
Typical methods
Cuts
Cuts from this primal
Questions
Common questions
What are Denver ribs?
A trade name for a trimmed rack of ribs off the breast — breastbone and flap removed, leaving an even slab. It is the same meat as the untrimmed version, tidied up and priced for the tidying. If you see “Denver ribs”, “spare ribs” and “breast” side by side, you are mostly looking at different amounts of butchery applied to one thing.
Why is it so cheap?
Because almost nobody asks for it. It is fatty, it needs hours, and it does not portion into anything that looks like a dinner plate. None of that is a quality problem — it is the same reason pork belly and beef brisket were cheap right up until people started cooking them on purpose.
Can you cook it fast?
No, and the reason is rendering rather than tenderness. The meat may well be tender long before the fat has melted out, and fat that has not rendered is unpleasant no matter how soft the meat around it is. Heat has to be low enough and long enough to get it out.
How do you get the ribs crisp instead of greasy?
Get the fat out first, then apply heat to a dry surface. Slow roast or braise until the meat gives, drain it and let it cool — cold, pressed ribs hold their shape — then finish under a hot grill or in a hot pan. Trying to crisp and cook at the same time browns the outside long before the inside has rendered.
More to explore
Other lamb primals
Lamb Ground
Not a part of the animal — a decision about the rest of it.
Lamb Shank
The one part of a lamb that being young does not rescue.
Lamb Shoulder
The one lamb roast that forgives you.
Lamb Leg
It carried the animal everywhere, and you can still eat it pink.
Lamb Rib
Frenched for the photograph, not for the flavour.
Lamb Loin
Muscles that never carried anything, on an animal too young to toughen them.