Relatively Traditional Rack of Lamb

Recipe by Flash Gordon Ramsay (formerly known as Demagogue). Wikified by Kenning.

This is a fairly traditional way of preparing rack of lamb. You can cook it with the fat on, or French it further as I did. I like removing the extra fat as the short cooking time doesn’t allow it to render and can lead to uneven cooking of the meat. Besides, the trimmed bits make for a good snack.

For this recipe you will need:

Lamb racks (I used Australian, which is fairly mild)
Bread crumbs (I made my own by drying some sourdough and pusing it in the Cuisinart)
Garlic (I used garlic confit, which I think blends better and has a deeper flavor)
Anchovies (optional, really)
Dijon mustard
Honey
Fresh rosemary
Oil of some sort

On to the pictures. We start with the racks. These are technically frenched, but not the way I want them. For that, we’ll remove the fat band and leave just the meat and rib so what we have looks like a lollipop when sliced.

Removing the fat is fairly easy. It should peel away from the meat up to the bone. From there, I made incisions along the top of them meat and then sliced down against each bone on both sides. Finish by cutting the meat off the top of the bones. A very sharp boning knife is helpful here. Toss the bits that you cut off into a pan.

At this point I could clean the bones off so they stay nice and white during cooking, but that takes a lot of time and I’m not very good at it, so we’re leaving it as is.

Now let’s season the removed bits liberally with S&P and put over low heat to render the fat. Sometimes I will use this fat for browning the meat.

But not this time. Today I decided to use my blowtorch to brown the meat. I did it on top of an overturned sheet pan with some foil on it.

Keep moving it around. I probably should have gone darker, but it still turned out well. This is just for flavor. Repeat: Searing/torching does not seal in juices

Time to mix the breading. I started by making garlic confit. Just cover a bunch of peeled cloves with the stem end cut off in canola oil and put over medium low heat for a while. Sometimes I do 40 minutes. Sometimes I do 2 hours. Today was about an hour and a half. The temp stayed under 212 the entire time.

Pulse a bunch of gloves of garlic, a few anchovies, and a little of the confit oil in a small food processor or maybe a blender or use your stick blender if you want. Mince some rosemary, add this and the garlic paste to the breadcrumbs. Mix up some glaze with honey and Dijon.

Stop and eat your rendered lamb bits. They should be crispy, chewy, lamby and delicious.

Paint just the meat of your racks with the glaze, then press into bread crumbs. Try to get them on nice and thick.

Bring your meat out to rest at room temperature for an hour before cooking. This is crucial to getting it cooked evenly. I baked on 400 convection to an internal temp of 128 (for medium rare). Rest well before slicing.

You can slice them into doubles and set them up all fancy like

Or you can slice them into singles and serve with whatever else you’re eating

They tasted great, but for some reason were a little underseasoned this time. Tate your breading to make sure you have enough salt in there (should be provided by the anchovies, but you may need to adjust).

This is really easy to make and has a nice wow factor. Any college kid with an oven and a sharp knife can make it.