I followed Tom Richardson-Hill down the stairs of the butcher Turner & George in Islington with some hesitancy. The steps were steep, slightly slippery and the basement smelt, not surprisingly, of raw meat. “This has been a butcher’s shop since the 18th century,” he told me.
This was the end of the trail, the place I hoped I’d find an answer to a question that has bothered me for the best part of 15 years: why have so many chefs turned their backs on a rack of lamb as a main course?
Until 20 years ago, a rack of lamb was a staple on menus across Europe, as well as the go-to dish for any amateur cook giving a dinner party. It involved enough red meat to satisfy any carnivore (there were many more in those days). It could be spiced up or served quite plain. It could be accompanied by virtually anything. And a rack of lamb looked good, either standing upright served whole or cut into cutlets and laid out on a platter.
During my time as a restaurateur in the 1980s, the menu would change every six weeks. But the rack of lamb was a constant, even as the accompaniments varied: a tian of aubergines, a mustardy gravy, a garlic purée.
It was also the main course that took the longest to cook, about 25 minutes with the necessary resting time out of the oven. It was immensely popular but, even 35 years ago, one of the most expensive dishes on the menu. This is not unconnected to its virtual disappearance.
Unlike cattle, lambs are farmed wild and need shepherding, often on small, family farms rather than bigger ones with their economies of scale. Lambs are smaller than cattle and produce less meat when butchered. All lambs have a pretty low yield and young ones, those available at Easter for example, produce all too little edible meat. Anyone who has read James Rebanks’ emotive tale of being a Lakeland sheep farmer, The Shepherd’s Life, will appreciate these unavoidable facts.
Back in Islington, Richardson-Hill hauled a lamb carcass out of the cold store and on to his butcher’s block. “This one weighs 21kg. They are all around 20kg-25kg at this time of the year and they cost us £6.50-£7 a kilo. It will yield two of everything: two legs; two shoulders from the front of the lamb, which is where the lamb shanks come from; two breasts; two racks of lamb from what is referred to as the best end; two kidneys. Oh, and one saddle.”
He began cutting it up and within 15 minutes he had finished. The shoulders came away easily. The saddle next, followed by “the best end”. He then expertly French trimmed the two racks, each comprising eight bones, a total of 16 lamb chops that would constitute no more than five servings. He put these on the scales and they weighed 1.4 kilos.
“Selling this to a chef at £40 per kilo, the same price as dry-aged beef, that will generate about £60 in total or about half the total cost of the lamb to us. A rack of lamb today costs any restaurant chef about £9 a portion and so will have to go on any menu for as much as £35 or £40,” he explained.
We examined what was left. The two legs, each 2.6kg, would generate £50 each; the two lamb shoulders a further £40 each; there was the saddle and there was a considerable amount of breast. “The breasts of lamb have never been very popular other than to numerous Turkish restaurants where the chefs cut them up, marinate them, roast them and serve them as a first course,” Richardson-Hill said.
“They are tasty and, like every butcher in the country, I hope that the same thing happens with these as happened to bone marrow when St John restaurant started serving them roasted as a first course topped with a parsley salad. Suddenly everyone wanted bone marrow. If that were to happen, we would have a national shortage of breast of lamb,” he laughed.
A rack of lamb has always been a prime cut and always, therefore, costly. But it’s more expensive now than ever. In the past four years, the wholesale price from Turner & George has increased by 50 per cent. According to co-founder James George, this is due to rising costs in specialty butchering, compounded by the effects of Brexit and Covid.
The wholesale arm of Turner & George continues to supply several leading restaurants with racks of lamb, including more than a tonne a week to Dishoom, the group of Indian restaurants which serve them as marinated lamb chops. It is also still on the menu at the venerable Rules and Wiltons. But both its growing expense and, I suspect, its rather conservative appeal have led most chefs to pass it by.
Michel Roux Jr, chef-patron of London’s Le Gavroche, suggested two additional reasons why the rack of lamb was vanishing. “As sous vide preparation becomes increasingly common, the rack, with its numerous bones, has lost its appeal to many chefs. And with the limited availability of talented front-of-house staff to carve and present this dish in front of the customers, a rack of lamb may have already become an item of menus past.”
I intend to treat myself to at least one rack of spring lamb, and I will regard it as a luxury.
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