How to break down a lamb, The right way! 🥩

hey guys welcome back today we're breaking down an entire lamb from head to [Music] toe so first off what we want to do when we're butchering is essentially the whole process is it is taking it into smaller manageable pieces so when we have a look at the lamb what are we looking for we got three main sections here at the top we got the four quar in the midsection we have the loin or the saddle and then down the end we got the legs so what we want to do is systematically break those up so we got three separate Cuts so first up when we're breaking the lamb we want to flip it onto its back but we have this neck in the way so we're going to angle it so the neck is hanging off the end of the bench so that our lamb is laying nice and flat and we can see in to where we're going to cut so that we're not cutting blind so first step we're going to take off the four quar then we're going to come down the end take the legs away from the saddle so come in this is how we break up the four4 all right so opening it up and looking into the chest cavity we can see all the ribs in here so where we want to break into is right at the top here we can count down 1 2 3 we're going to go right in between these two here between the third and the fourth rib lining it up straight through and then counting down one two three on the other side straight through so that went all the way through so coming up to the top of the sternum here so the sternum is a really soft cartilage bone um we can cut through it with the heel of our knife so coming up all the way to the top once we're up against the sternum with a sharp push we can cut straight through through flip it around do it on the other side making contact with the sternum and then a sharp pull cut straight through finish off you're going to hold your Shanks all the way up so we get a nice straight cut and so we can't go any further right now we're up against the spine and the scapula with our butcher saw coming through we're going to use that to cut through the bone and then we'll finish off with our knife to cut through the eye so long strokes letting the soore do all the work so we don't want to really get right in there you want to just do let the so do all the cutting for you otherwise we're really going to mess up those bones and maybe tear into the meat finish off with our steak Knife so we got a nice clean cut that is the four quarter so we've sent away the 4/4 we're going to cut that one through in the middle minute what we need next is to take the loin or the saddle away from the legs so again if we come in and have a look here so as we have a look on the inside we can see the cavity as it comes down and connects back into the loin so that's almost our indicator we can see this fat coming down through here and then as it joins back there that's our indicator on where we want to break away from the loin from the end of the leg another way to do it is flip it over and if we feel down the back of the legs we can see as it starts to dip in here where it finishes if we push in there's almost two little dimples there and that's our indicator that that is the end of the leg and the start of the loin so we want to line that up that's going to be a perfect break every single time so coming down at the end of our C our cavity at the base of the loin marking all the way through with our knife and then same again we're going to finish off with the saw now you want to push down on the loin that's going to keep it nice and flat so we get a nice straight cut right at the base of the loine right in line with those two dimples that is a perfect break okay so that's that's essentially our breakdown we got the four4 we got the loin which consists of the ribs the rack and the mid loin and the legs and the chump down the far end so what's next we're going to go through now we got our smaller manageable pieces let's get some cuts out of these uh so 44 first let's go chop this one up so what we're doing now is essentially we're going to take the shanks off and then we're going to split the four cord up um and I guess the general cut that you're going to get out of this one uh is your chops I'll take you through on just how to do some chops and then we'll save the other side for a 4 qu uh boning and preparation for another video so essentially what we're going to do is line up our Shanks so we taking those ons away and then I'm going to show you how to line up your four quar and take those chops off so come in so what we're looking for right here is the end of our shank so we want to line this one up right here an easy way to do this is pre-marking exactly where you need to cut so that you got a good visual Line to Line it up against the blade so Safety First grab the end of your Hawk and the end of your neck and you just want to be holding on firmly and essentially with a light push down or pulling apart that way if anything happens your hands are either straight down or straight out the way so firm grip Holding On We're just letting the banda do all the cutting we're just going to lightly push it [Music] through once we got our Shanks off we can set the four quarter aside and we're going to finish off doing the doing the shank so essentially what we want to do is just take take these little hawks off um and that's just a straight cut straight through the B it's just a presentation Factor more than anything it exposes the marrow is it's going to be able to cook out and it's just going to be a whole lot better so same again hands right out the way this is a oneand job we want to line up right at the base of the hawk um and just a light push through so that's our Shanks off that's done next step taking the chops away from the LF quarter so first step splitting it up come have a look what we're doing what we're looking for is our center line so we can already see straight down the middle we got the small dip at the top of the axis here in the neck we got a good visual representation on how straight that's going to go through to the top of the spine and straight through the Chim so what we're doing is lining it up with the blade we don't want to make any contact yet but we're just going to slightly do that hands out method thumbs are tucked in h fingers are away and we're just going to lightly push it through following that straight [Music] line once we got it into the half we got half of 44 here we still got a lot of this which is underneath the chest cavity here it's um going to need to be trimmed off a little bit later but a trick that you can do is taking it off now to save a bit of time while we're still on the band s so so lining this up essentially the motion that we want to go go through is getting it through and then just coming in straight just to cut off this little bit of fat and a little bit of excess bone our hands are out the way already behind the blade so that's not an issue and we're just going to be rolling it through and cutting through [Music] Straight doesn't seem like a lot but if you can imagine having to trim this off every single chop as you're trimming it up and getting it ready for presentation it's a lot of work and it's a lot of stuffing around so if we can take this off now in half a second we're going to going be saving ourself a lot more time in the long run okay so next step what we're going to do we're going to cut this whole three whole thing through for chops so flipping it over laying it on a nice flat surface we're going to take off these round bone chops or um essentially this part of the humorus we're going to cut those through first um then we're going to go through our square cut four quarter chops so let's have a look at the setup what we have here is the the round bone the humorous out of the arm here um and what we're going to get is about four to five chops out of this side before we flip it around and take about four to five chops off this side here so first up what we're doing lining it up and this one's to desired thickness so your standard 44 chop is going to be maybe maybe a cenm in thickness but you can do these ones thicker uh or thinner totally up to you so turning it on nice straight [Music] [Music] hands so I'm four chops into it and we've gone to the very very top of the of the humoris that's the head of the knuckle there any more it's going to start to cut into this blade right here where it comes up to the top and at the uh up at the humorous joint so four chops is more than enough we're going to set these ones aside and do the rest so we're using a nice flat hands I call it robot hands so that we're not uh um getting any fingers in the way we definitely don't want to do that and this hand stays holding on to this chop which essentially is going to act as a safety guide so that our hands not running up against the blade every single [Music] time so we're at the end of the uh humorous again any further into that that's just fat uh that we're going to be taking off so we're we're starting to run out of meat so essentially that's just the leftover is just your neck we can use this as a neck chop I'm just going to use it as as trim so back to the block so so that's our four quarter done next up down the line is our loin let's take this one over to the banda and get it chopped up so our loin the cuts that we want to get out of this essentially are the ribs the rack and the main feature piece which is the mid point or the chops so for starters what we want to do is split this one straight down the guts so we got easy access to emit all those cuts so so to line it up again we're going straight down the middle this one's a tricky one to do we want to open up the chest cavity we want to be pulling that out so I've tucked the end of the flaps out and I'm thumbs in pulling out and pushing forward so that as the spine or the Chim bone starts to come apart from the saw it's essentially going to be going like this as we make it all the way down to the line so points um to pay attention to is just hold it straight hold it flat and making sure that we've got that nice straight line through if we start to go a little bit off track by going slow we can always readjust until we get it second nature so lining it up looks pretty even and just not pushing too hard just want to let the saw do all the work pushing out so that's a pretty good break we can see that we're down the middle all the way through we got a nice even split we haven't cut into the meat it's all bone it looks pretty good let's take the ribs off rack and the loin so for this next section to take the ribs away from the from the loin we're going into the middle here and we're working on halves so if we look at the inside here of the first rib we want to go halfway and if we look at down the end of the tail from the loin we want to go from the tail we want to go halfway again so we just essentially want to make these lines L line up and if it helps we can put a little bit of a guide Mark all the way through so that we got a line to follow so again thumbs on the inside hands facing out we want to be pulling away so it's all going to come apart as it goes through the [Music] so that one was nice easy we've got the ribs off no worries our next part here is a little bit more technical we want to take the rack away from the loin so as we can see here the ribs as they start to move a little bit further down into the loine they start to develop a little bit of curvature so the last one is that has the most curvature and it almost cuts into the line so that's our profit there we don't want to lose this rib we don't want to cut it straight so we're going to break through the joint here which is the last bone and the last last joint into the loin and we're going to follow that rib around so find your last bone in the rack go up we're going to go to the loin side joint across which is just here that small white intercostal there so our last rib last joint on the loin side that's our indicator where we want to cut so to give you a closeup this is our last rib here we want to get your hand hands in and feel that so that's our last rib on the cutlet and we're going to the top on the loin side our last joint right there so if we have a look on the other side we can see this is the last rib and we're going to go into the last joint on the loin side again so it's the last rib last joint on the loin side which is here let me get on this one last rib the last joint on the loin side that's our indicator where we want to break so lining it up as soon as we break through the chimbo we want to come through nice and straight so we got a nice straight face Edge on that chop and then we're going to come through and follow the curvature of this rib so we're going to turn the loin slightly and follow that rib all the way [Music] around so so once it's through now we're going to slightly [Music] turn just to follow that rib all the way around so we've got a nice straight face Edge on this side got a nice straight face Edge on that side we're going to have a little bit of a taper on the tail but it's just a tail that's not too bad that doesn't matter it's all good that's the loin next up we have our rack and we wanted take away this chime bone this is probably the most dangerous part on the band saw that you're going to ever have to do so our angle that we want to go on is just here to here so keep in mind that this is our most expensive cut that you're going to get out of this entire thing um in the lamb completely so there's very little room for mistakes so so lining it up find that angle if it helps to put a little guide Mark in there so we know where to cut lining it up and then we're going to go straight through another way to do this is to also cut it straight through like that I don't really like that way because you have to angle it just just right whereas this with this one it's a good way to learn the shapes of the bone and see where your hands are I think this ways a whole lot safer to be honest so lining it up coming [Music] through hand out the way and grab the back and we're going to pull it the rest of the way [Music] through so that's essentially all we want to get off there's very little meat here it's literally next to nothing but keep in mind I've done this over a million times and this one takes a lot of practice if you're unsure worst case you want to cut more into the rib uh more into the bone sorry so we can take little pieces of the bone off if we cut into the meat we can't put it back together um that's that's just the best way to do it slowly taking away bone by bone by bone until we're left with the finished product like this so to do the leg uh there's there's a number of different ways on what you can do out of this leg for today's demonstration what we're going to do is drop it on the rail and then we're going to take off some rump staks and prep the leg as just a leg roast super basic um super easy anyone can do this one it's that that simple so but first she's looking pretty ugly so we want to take all these trimmings up and get it looking nice and pretty so that we can drop it on the rail so what we have here is our inside skirts and we got a a little bit of excess fat on the on the outsides and internally here in the cavity as well so first step is we want to take off this external fat we can almost see here where the fat starts and where the meat starts so following this line along here want to pull this out and just cut straight through the fat so that's all that's coming off on the top here we got the skirt and we can see again as well where the meat connects to the fat so we got meat that hard white fat that is our line that we're cutting through pulling away till we broken through and all that's going into our trim next up we got all this internal fat here this really hard visceral fat we're just going to scrape we can almost pull it out if we one and two we can just pull it out literally pull it out with our hands but we just want to expose that fillet that comes through here all right so we got a straight line here you've noticed I've only hung up one leg so essentially what that allows us to do is use gravity as our friend so that as we're taking this leg away it's slowly going to start to fall so straight through the middle you can see it's already starting to open up straight down the guts until we arrive at the [Music] HB up next we want to put a little bit of pressure onto the leg and we're just going to slowly just with the tip we're just using that small section of the knife just the just the tip we don't want to be cutting we just want to be stabbing essentially into it we're just going to slowly start to guide The Knife Down from top to bottom straight cuts until we come across this here what we're looking for is this shiny little Pearl essentially it's nice and smooth that's the top of our femur as it goes into the uh into the joint and we want to just break this little connective tendon just there so once that's broken this whole leg is essentially going to start to come away so around and over the top for the H bone pulling away and just following it all the way around remember your left hand is or your non- knife hand is more most important than your knife hand and we're going to slowly follow that bone all the way around long strokes all the way through to the tail that leg so having a look at the anatomy of the leg we have the shank up this end I guess the main body of the leg down this end here that we have our rump or our chump depending on what you want to do with it so to trim up this end we're going to do it as some lamb steaks taking off all the ugly bits and make them really nice and pretty and presentable um and they're an awesome cut especially around the summer time or you could leave it in a whole and roast it in the cooler months so coming in close we got all this external fat and senes we just want to trim those ones off so very lightly taking those ones away and remember nothing's going to waste we're using all this as trimmings for our sausages until we're starting to look pretty clean clean at this end so next part is we got this this is the head of your fillet that can stay on but we just want to square it up so that we're starting with a nice good sized steak laying it on the back is going to assure that you get a nice square cut so we got no awkward shapes and we're going to get three to four good Stakes off the end of the leg there so off the leg now what we want to do is take away the shank um so coming through we got the Achilles tendon here coming down and we're going to break this one out so that one's released following down on the inside we're going to follow this seam and come down here straight to the Joint so our indicator here is there's almost like this little small Ridge or this very small uh I guess knuckle that's our indicator on where the the joint is right so looking closely what we have here is the heel and the shank so there's almost a line you can barely see it it's quite faint which goes around here but if we get our finger in there we can almost start to peel it away so that's the separation between the muscles there so coming down following that same into the joint and we're going to roll the shank away just like so now we're left with the leg and the shank and our staks so back to the lach what we want to do is just for this one we're just going to cut it into chops another one that I really really like is a lam noisette which is a boneless lamb loin and then it's stuffed and rolled up and they're really really good as a roast or they're good as a uh a mini steak or something like that on the Barbe they're absolutely awesome but today we're just going to do the classic lamb loin chop so this is our loin it needs a little bit of trimming up it's pretty ugly let's get it all prepped up for some chops so coming through off the top just want to take away this part here it's a thicker bit of gristle that runs down the inside straight into the bin we also have this um small internal kidney fat which is really really really hard it doesn't render lamp Fat's a little bit different and we just want to slightly scoop that out I'm laying it on the back that way we can get in there we're pushing away into the bin if you have any spinal column left in you can mark it and then just peel all that out straight into the bin so what we can see here is these small joints so we're going to Mark through each and every one of those it's really really soft and it's a small amount of bone in the middle but we can essentially cut through them with the he about knife providing that it's sharp so lining it up with the heel of our knife which is the bottom third we want to cut through first and then with a good amount of Leverage at the front of our blade we're going to push through and chop it so the motion isn't just a push down we actually want to get a bit of movement so that we're essentially cutting through that bone which gives you a really really nice clean chop you get that that glossy whitee from the joint and you get a really really nice face Edge as well this is my preference for cutting loin chops purely because it's safer we're not getting close to the band saw and we can do it all on the Block so lastly we have our lamb rack this is the best cut in the whole lamb in my personal opinion so what we want to do is trim it off we got a lot of coverage over the back we still got some uh some of the Chim bone left down here on the eye muscle so that's where we're going to start we're going to take that off first coming down the inside here just following the bone and that just skims straight off into the bin up next we got our shoulder blade which comes out we want to get just underneath that until we get into that seam so coming up underneath the scapula which is the blade here we want to run a flat knife underneath all the way throughout the other side same again all the way through and we're just going to follow that until we get through into this seam here you can see it starts almost wants to peel away we're just going to Mark our that gently underneath over the ribs and down over the eye [Music] muscle like so it's not essential but just for presentation Factor we're just going to trim up over the bones over the ribs if I was doing them for myself for home I'd probably leave all that on but just for presentation we're going to take all that off then next up flipping it on its back so we've got our nice clear lines to go through we want to cut straight through the middle of the intercal so that we're left with some really nice looking cutlets like so so that was just a basic breakdown if you'd like to see anything uh in depth such as like a boneless four quarter or how a bon a leg or what other cuts to get out leave those ones in the comment section below and I'll be sure to get to those ones so give that a go if you got any questions let me know and I'll be sure to go over it in next video

Channel: Joel the Butcher

Views: 14,565

Keywords: butchering lamb, lamb butchering guide, lamb cutting guide, lamb cutting techniques, lamb meat cuts, lamb meat guide, lamb steak, lamb chops, lamb loin, lamb rack, lamb shank, lamb leg, boneless lamb loin, lamb butchery, lamb preparation, lamb cooking tips, Joel the Butcher, meat cutting, meat preparation, meat cooking, meat butcher

Id: z93yUYDdwrk

Length: 30min 54sec (1854 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 02 2023