day 50: fabricating lamb; shepherd's pie and prime rib

Today, we broke down an entire lamb, and made shepherd's pie. The pie was cool to make because all the layers were separate dishes that we had cooked previously: ground lamb, ratatouille, pommes puree and gruyere cheese for good measure.

Chef Pastore starts by separating the shoulder with his scimitar.

The first bone is taken off because there is virtually no meat on it.

The leg is separated from the shoulder through the joint, just like a chicken.

Chef Pastore grabs hold of the breast meat, and removes it to make the ribs easier to deal with.

He first takes off the riblets...

and cleans them up a bit.

He makes a cut between the third and fourth rib...

and does the same between the 12th and 13th rib...

to expose the eye.

The bones get trimmed evenly...

and the rack is rolled back from the spine, like removing a chicken breast.

Chef Pastore removes the fat cap to french the bones.

After trimming off most of the meat...

he uses a towel to pull off the remaining membrane and bits.

He goes in to remove the tenderloin...

which is quite puny, compared to the steer we worked on yesterday.

He flips it over to take off the sirloin.

He removes the leg along the pelvic bone.

The cap comes off with a good whack.

For the semi-boneless market form, we tunnel the thigh bone like a chicken, but the leg bone stays intact.

We can also bone the thigh meat completely...

for our BRT (boned, rolled and tied).

Our fabricated lamb, clockwise from top left: breast, whole leg, BRT leg, sirloin, shoulder, riblets, hind shank, fore shank, frenched rib rack, sirloin again, random artery and tenderloin.

This is my shepherd's pie, which first got a layer of ground lamb sauteed with finely diced celery, carrots and onion. Then, I added the ratatouille which I made with eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, red and yellow bell peppers, onions and tomatoes. On top was a layer of pommes puree, or creamy mashed potatoes, and grated gruyere. It was delicious, especially with a side of prime rib that Chef Pastore roasted with plenty of garlic and thyme.