3.4: Lamb

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BC Cook Articulation Committee
BC Campus

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Lamb refers to young male and female sheep. They are slaughtered at approximately six months of age. The lamb carcass dressed weight is usually between 25 and 27 kg (50 and 60 lb). Because it is young, lamb is very tender, promoting dry heat cooking for most of the animal. Due to the high price per pound and small carcass size, lamb is most often marketed with the bone in. Sheep over the age of 12 months is referred to as mutton. Mutton has a much stronger flavour and is less tender than lamb.

The lamb carcass (Figure 26) is broken into four primals: front, leg, loin, and flank. The lamb front is then broken into four sub-primals: the lab shoulder, neck, fore shank, and breast. The lamb leg can be left whole or split into leg shank and butt portion. The loin consists of two parts: the rib and loin. Locations of primal and cub-primal cuts of lamb are shown in Figure 27 and Table 35.

Figure 27. Lamb primal and sub-primal cuts.

Table 35 – Primal and sub-primal cuts of lamb.
Primal	Sub-primals
Leg	Shank (A),Leg, shank portion (B), Leg, butt portion (C and D), Sirloin (E)
Loin	Rib (rack) (G), Loin (F)
Flank	No further breakdown (H)
Front	Shoulder (J), Breast (L), Neck (I), Shank (M)

The primals and sub-primals are further broken down into retail and restaurant cuts as shown in Table 36.

Table 36: Retail and restaurant cuts of lamb.
Primal	Retail Meat Sales Cuts	Restaurant Cuts	Alternate Names
Lamb leg	Lamb leg shank portion	Leg of lamb
	Lamb leg butt portion
	Lamb leg sirloin chops	Lamb sirloin (boneless)
	Lamb shank
Lamb loin	Lamb loin chops	Lamb T-bone
	Lamb rib chops	Lamb chops	Lamb popsicles
	Lamb rack	Rack of lamb	Both lamb racks can be used to produce a crown roast
Lamb flank	Lamb flank rolled (boneless)
Lamb shoulder	Lamb shoulder arm chops
	Lamb shoulder blade chops
	Lamb neck chops
	Lamb shoulder roast	Lamb shoulder	Oyster shoulder
	Lamb shank

Figure 28 displays retail lamb cuts. To download this poster:

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