Like the home oven ribs, this is a very simple dish to cook well, especially if you have a good butcher, an oven and a cheap probe thermometer (with an alarm when it reaches target temperature) / fancy wireless thermometer (so you can hang out somewhere else while your meat is cooking)
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| These can be cooked under the broiler for a more aggressive crust |
Flavor Profiles (What Herbs and Spices to use)
Lamb chops / racks are a fatty cut which pairs well with something tangy and slightly spicy. Garlic is almost a must, when it comes to lamb. The strong flavors of lamb also pair well with various herbal flavors. I'm a fan of thyme and rosemary, as well as mint.
Dijon mustard works very well as a medium for the paste, and to get everything to stick well to the meat. Dijon has more heat than yellow mustard, and a more complex "mustardy" flavor when baked (yellow mustard seems almost flavorless to me). I also find that it has a slightly better crust when baked with lamb fat, so leave a little on when trimming your lamb.
I prefer to do a salt rub on the meat ahead of time, to allow the salt to better penetrate the meat. This dry brine initially draws out moisture from the meat, and the salty liquid is then reabsorbed back into the meat. We will allow the meat at least 45 minutes to do this (and up to 2 days in the fridge).
We prepare the mustard garlic herb rub while the meat is brining. Ideally use a mortar and pestle to crush all the herbs and garlic before coating it on the mustard covered meat, but I've definitely blitzed everything in a food processor when I'm rushed for time and just covered the lamb in it before roasting.
Bread crumbs (especially panko) and Shredded parmesan cheese also work well in the crust coating.
Trimming
Most rack of lambs will now come "frenched" (with the bones trimmed), and with the backbone removed. Here's a guide, if your rack doesn't come frenched. You can use the excess meat for soups or stocks, or render the fat for oil. If I don't french them, I'll just trim the excess fat off, and score the remaining fat so it renders better.
Doneness / Health and Safety
For cuts steak / chop / rack meats, meats are usually at their most tender when cooked Medium Rare - between 55°C to 58°C / 130°F to 135°F .
For healthy, non-pregnant adults, cuts of beef and lamb can be safely eaten at these temperatures, as long as the surface of the meat has been cooked to 71°C / 160°F.
This is because it's considered that most bacteria cannot easily penetrate dense meat fibers (when the meat is properly stored), so we are only concerned about surface contamination.
There is a mild risk of infection from parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii (Crazy cat-lady syndrome), which is not considered a serious health risk for healthy individuals (except for pregnant women, who may pass it to their babies). In the USA, it's estimated that there are 1.5 cases per 100,000 servings of lamb.
Toxoplasma gondii is killed in 5.6 min at 49°C / 120°F, in 44 sec at 55°C / 131°F and in 6 sec at 61°C /141°F if the temperature is evenly distributed and maintained throughout the meat.
We can use the carryover cooking to ensure that our rare steak / lamb chops are safe to eat. You can see from thermowork's carryover cooking graph that when they pull their meat at 140°F, it goes past that temperature a little (between 3.9°F -19°F, over a period of at least a few minutes). Cooking large pieces of meat in a large oven leads to more overcooking. Using a cooler oven leads to less overcooking.
Rack of Lamb Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmX2zBx9vSs&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8vSOGGL_m8&t=967s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cNjJVt6qyI
Rack of Lamb Recipes
https://www.finecooking.com/membership/pdf/43447/051008042.pdf
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/rack-of-lamb-with-garlic-and-herbs-1222178
Links for extra research
Dry-Brining Is the Best Way to Brine Meat, Poultry, and More
Penetration of bacteria into meat. - Study
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