Mutton Meat, Lamb Parts Picture

The parts of a lamb for purposes of carving and cooking mutton meat recipes. See also cutting mutton.

1. Leg, used for roasts and for boiling.
2. Shoulder, used for baked dishes and roasts.
3. Loin, best end used for roasts, chops.
4. Loin, chump end used for roasts and chops.
5. Rack, or rib chops, used for French chops, rib chops, either for frying or broiling; also used for choice stews.
6. Breast, used for roast, baked dishes, stews, chops.
7. Neck or scrag-end, used for cutlets, stews and meat-pies.

A saddle of muton or double loin is two loins cut off before the carcass is split open down the back. French chops are a small rib chop, the end of the bone trimmed off and the meat and fat cut away from the thin end, leaving the round piece of mutton meat attached to the larger end, which leaves the small rib bone bare. Very tender and sweet.

Mutton is prime when cut from a carcass which has been fed out of doors, and allowed to run upon the hillside; they are best when about three years old. The fat will then be abundant, white and hard, the flesh juicy and firm, and of a clear red color.

For mutton roasts, choose the shoulder, the saddle, or the loin or haunch. The leg should be boiled. Almost any part will do for broth.

Lamb born in the middle of the winter, reared under shelter, and fed in a great measure upon milk, then killed in the spring, is considered a great delicacy, though lamb is good at a year old. Like all young animals, lamb ought to be thoroughly cooked, or it is most unwholesome.