Huge Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking Lamb

Serving up a lamb dish is a little different than more typical proteins like beef and chicken. You might not opt for lamb as often, and that leads to inevitable mistakes when cooking it. But mistakes don't have to happen: get in the know and cook your lamb right.

For starters, your lamb might not turn out as you expected if you don't know the difference between the cuts. Each cut cooks differently because some muscles are worked more than others, so it's really important to choose the appropriate cut of lamb before you hit the grill, skillet, or oven. Some cuts have a stronger presence of lamb's characteristic "gamey" taste. For example, lamb shanks and cuts from the shoulder have a more gamey flavor than cuts with less fat, like rib chops, loin chops, and rack of lamb.

It all comes down to the cut's concentration of branched-chain fatty acids or BCFAs. That's a compound found in lamb fat that's responsible for its grassy flavor and aroma. By choosing less fatty cuts, you can reduce the amount of gaminess in the lamb. Looking at where the lamb was raised can help, too. BCFAs are more concentrated in lamb that graze on grass. Since New Zealand and Australian lamb are grass-fed their entire lives, they contain more of these compounds. American lamb, on the other hand, is finished on grain, reducing the BCFAs in their fat and giving them a sweeter flavor.

If you're avoiding lamb altogether because of that gamey flavor, you might be able to fix that by trimming your cuts. The compounds that cause that flavor are mainly found in lamb fat, so by trimming the fat, you may be able to remove most of the gaminess of intense cuts like lamb shoulder or leg of lamb. If you're not comfortable trimming fat at home, you may be able to ask your local butcher for help.

Watch the video for more Huge Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking Lamb!

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Not choosing the best cut | 0:16
Choosing boneless lamb | 1:46
Cooking straight from the fridge | 2:59
Marinating for too long | 3:58
Skipping the Spices | 5:06
Cooking the cut incorrectly | 6:07
Overcooking | 7:14
Not using a meat thermometer | 8:28
Not letting the lamb rest | 9:13
Slicing incorrectly | 10:11
Serving without a sauce | 10:51

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