Ever wondered where all the lamb racks have gone?
Here’s a question for Australian chefs everywhere. Yes, we know you do a glorious, slow-cooked lamb shoulder to share. And, yes, we know all about your amazing lamb shank special, since your waiter just spent five minutes, unsolicited, telling us all about it. But, trust us, it’s a simple question. Where have all the lamb racks gone?
Think about it. When was the last time you — the diner — ordered rack of lamb in a contemporary, mid to upper-priced restaurant? And, come to think of it, when was the last time you saw a recipe for it in a contemporary cookbook?
Such a beautiful cut of meat. So very Australian. So right for the times, surely, when the virtues of produce and simplicity, the whole paddock-to-plate caper, are writ so large in our eco-consciousness. We love our lamb, and all that.
Two more questions. Have the racks gone to the same place as the legs? And are Australian chefs (and cookbook writers) pulling the wool over our eyes?
Troy Wheeler, butcher at Melbourne chef Andrew McConnell’s new store Meatsmith (in Fitzroy and due to open next week), is as surprised as we are by the alarming disappearance of premium cuts on modern menus. In taking delivery of breed-specific lambs — whole beasts that he breaks down himself — he’s facing the unprecedented situation of being left with racks and legs “because chefs don’t want them any more”.
And why not? Their heads have been turned by the undervalued pleasures of secondary cuts, perhaps. They’re too young to associate lamb shanks with dog food, probably. “It’s a cost issue,” says Wheeler. “Racks wholesale for around $50/kg; shoulder is around $10/kg. Chefs can’t make their profit margins on racks.”
Yes, it’s true. Our racks are racking off — to the Middle East, more and more, and the US and China. According to a spokesperson for Meat & Livestock Australia, lamb exports rose 7 per cent in 2014-15, with legs and racks the cuts of choice for the overseas market. And on the back of this demand the price of lamb at home has been rising about 7 per cent year-on-year.
Of course it’s not just lamb slipping out of our reach. The savvy restaurant-watcher will have noticed the surreptitious shift in premium beef cuts, too: where once a great steak was a standard part of every aspirational menu, increasingly the best cuts are promoted to “special” status, often as dishes to share between two or more and priced accordingly. (At Firedoor, Sydney, the dry-aged, cooked-over-coals steak that could change your life can cost up to $140.)
These days, if it’s real steak you’re after — as opposed to the increasingly common “butcher’s cut”, usually hanger or skirt) — you’re often better off heading somewhere that specialises in the stuff, like a pub (we recommend O’Connell’s, South Melbourne, or the Railway Club Hotel, Port Melbourne) or a steakhouse (The Cut Bar & Grill, Sydney, or Rockpool Bar & Grill, in three states).
And when only lamb rack will do? There is some good news.
Lamb-loving chefs, lamenting the loss of cheap sheep and reluctant to put a $50-plus main on their menu, are divvying up the old main-course rack (traditionally, seven or eight chops) and instead offering one or two cutlets as a starter — or a bar-menu bite — at a price that won’t induce sticker shock.
Though you may faint for another reason when you try the lamb cutlets with chianti ketchup ($5 each) at Bar Di Stasio, Melbourne: ask Masterchef’s Marco Pierre White how good they are.
Other fine examples, recently sampled: lamb cutlets with koji glaze at Cho Cho San, Sydney (three for $25); and the robata-grilled lamb cutlets with a yuzu miso glaze, served with wasabi chimichurri at Sake Double Bay, Sydney (two for $20).
And if you’re wondering what happened to Wheeler’s racks and legs: he’s sending them off to the retail market, where affluent shoppers snap them up for quick and easy home-cooked dinners.
Lamb bam, and all that.
Source: The Australian, Necia Wilden, 3rd September 2015
Originally published as: Ever wondered where all the lamb racks have gone?
