Easter Rack of Lamb


 
Rich G

Rich G

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Due to some good fortune with vaccine appointments in our family, we were able to host our in-laws for the first, indoor, sit-down dinner since March 16th, 2020. I asked my mother-in-law what she would prefer for her Easter dinner, and she asked if I would make lamb. No problem! I decided on rack of lamb (CostCo), and, after some research, I settled on a similar preparation to the rack of pork I made last week.

Started off with two racks of lamb, trimmed of a good amount of fat (I left plenty.....)

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The next step was to sear the lamb on the stovetop, after which it got cooled a bit, then slathered with the mustard mixture in the photo (dijon mustard, olive oil, splash of sherry vinegar, garlic, salt/pepper, and a dose of Thyme and Rosemary)

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At this point, the lamb went out to the pellet grill running at 300F until the internal temp was measuring at about 135F. No grill, pics, but here's one while the lamb rests after a quick trip under the broiler

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Sliced, plattered, and plated...

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Roasted cauliflower on the side is a family favorite (olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon zest, lemon juice, walnut bits.....roasted at 400F for 30 minutes in cast iron.)

A great meal, enjoyed by all, and a wonderful time spent (inside) with family!!! Topped the night off with a Gin Old Fashioned.....

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Thanks for stopping in!!

Rich
 
Rich,
That looks great and wasn't it amazing to host family again! Covid vaccines made it possible for us yesterday also. The timing the this post is a little eerie to me and you literally keep me from having to do my next "how do I" post. My daughter wants more lamb, so we picked up a rack that looks very much like yours. A few minutes ago I started to make plans for the meals for the week and told her, I have to figure out how to prep and cook that rack of lamb. They I saw your post. I showed my daughter it and Bruno's post of the double cut lamb chops and seared on the SF. She wants to do both so I am going to cut the rack in half and make two different meals out of it (her and I are the only ones that will eat lamb). So thanks for the guidance even before I asked for it!!!! Can you tell me more about the steps, times it took, why you seared on the stove, how long you did that, any guides that helped you, anything that would be helpful?
Michael
 
Michael Richards said:
Can you tell me more about the steps, times it took, why you seared on the stove, how long you did that, any guides that helped you, anything that would be helpful?
Click to expand...
It was amazing to have family over, even just my f-i-l and m-i-l! A serendipitous cook, too, since you are looking to cook up a rack! :) Ok, more details (I'll be as accurate as I can, as I amalgamated a few recipes in my head, and added a heaping dose of "winging it"!) :)

For the rack prep, I didn't really do anything other than trim down the thick fat layer a bit. This is complete personal preference....I find that having some fat makes it more "lamby", and that's what I like. I did not trim out the silverskin that covers the "lobe" of meat, as I find that is the primary structure that is holding that lobe to the rest of the rack. One thing I would consider doing that I didn't do last night, is to see if I could remove the membrane on the back of the ribs.....not sure if its too thin, and therefore not worth it.

I wanted to cook the lamb at 300F, so I opted to do a pre-cook sear as that was going to be the only way to get some Maillard reaction going, knowing that I was going to coat with the mustard. I seasoned with salt/pepper then seared them with a bit of olive oil and butter in a pretty hot skillet (use less oil/butter than you think you will need, as you will render out some lamb fat from the racks.) I did 3 minutes on the top side, a minute with the rack standing with bones straight up, a minute on the back, and I skipped the ends.....but you could do those, too. Just get some good color on them. Once seared I let them cool about five minutes, and then added the slather.

The slather was (roughly) 4 Tbsp dijon mustard, 2 Tbs olive oil, 2 tsp sherry vinegar, then mixed in salt, pepper, minced garlic, thyme and rosemary to taste/eye. If you have access to fresh rosemary, thyme or other herbs you like, that's a great option as well. Once slathered, the racks went onto the grill at 300F, and took about 40 minutes to hit 135F. They arrived at finished temps about 5 minutes apart from each other, so I just held the first one to come off under foil until the second was ready, then ran them under a hot broiler for just a bit to crisp. Rested for 10 minutes, and then sliced them up. Adjust your finished temp for your preferred level of doneness. I would have called these just under medium rare, which is about the least I could cook them and still have my m-i-l eat them! :)

I think that's all of it.....let me know if you have questions! :)

R
 
Very nice. I use those same racks from Costco, it’s a nice quality lamb.
I don’t eat the lamb and my wife and kids are definitely medium well type of eaters so I like to cut them up.
I stumbled on those racks a couple years ago and haven’t looked back. I like the look of the French bones, I will try that next time.
 
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