Yes...year round for me, too.

I don't know if the supermarkets here in NY differentiate lamb shank and leg of lamb..

I don't remember seeing lamb shanks sold.

dcarch

dcarch, you could be right about them not differentiating. There's clearly a big difference since a shank is basically the shin. A leg (boneless or bone-in) is much larger and meatier.

Another example is tri-tip which has been widely available here in Southern CA for years. I've had friends/family in other parts of the country tell me they can't find it anywhere. I'm sure it's mainly due to being labeled with another name. It's just a triangular cut from the bottom sirloin. Not the tenderest cut but one of my favorites with flavor.

NY is supposed to be the center of everything. Yet, I have never seen tri-tip.

dcarch

And the shank is considerably smaller than a leg of lamb. Very common in both grocery stores and butchers here.

dcarch, tri-tip is at every market here...also Costco and Sam's club. I wonder what a butcher would say if you asked for the bottom triangular cut from the bottom sirloin. Surely they'd know what that is. LOL...if not, ask them to find out! ;-)

Or...show the butcher a photo...

Our stores sometimes have the shanks, but boy, have they gotten expensive. I started cooking them years ago when my dad was visiting, because he loved them. Sometimes I got some that were very fatty or stringy, so I switched to lamb stew, just easier. I haven't made any lamb in a long time, except for maybe shepherd's pie. My recipe for shanks or stew is the easiest thing ever, fabulous results with minimal effort.

2-3 shanks or 1-2 lbs stew meat, sliced thin onions, carrots, celery, 2 cloves garlic, s & p, oregano, thyme, bay, with stew I'd add a few anchovies and potatoes/carrots chunked

1/2 c red wine mixed w/ 1 c tomato sauce over all, no browning

Crockpot low 8-10 hrs or low oven until tender, puree jus

Ann, yours look great, and I agree, it's a "no recipe" after a few times!

Do you have a source for venison shanks? They can be used in any lamb or beef recipe. I had been ignoring them for years and did not know what we were missing.

I have beef shanks and venison shanks, and even our Meijer's here has lamb shanks. My husband loves lamb, so occasionally I cook them.

Tri-tip is a different animal altogether. I seldom see it here, and it is NOT the same as sirloin tip. The tri-tip is actually three parts, according to my processor: the flap, the ball-tip and the tri-tip. Here they mostly cut the tri-tip into something called "coulotte" steaks, leaving only a small "tip". Sometimes those can be a couple of pounds but usually they are smaller and are usually cut into something called "sirloin tips". Anyway, he cut me some 5 pound tri-tips, I'll try to convince Elery to put them in the smoker when the weather breaks a little and in return, I'll agree to make him some lamb shanks!

Annie

Last year Costco on Long Island had tri tip in vac. packages with a marinade. They were a nice treat. Have not looked for them recently. Think it was a summer grilling kind of meat.

marcopolo, we grill it year round here. Those vac pkgs. with marinades can sometimes be overly salty. I'm glad yours were good!

I've been buying tri-tip for a very long time. Annie is right...it is NOT sirloin tip, although in some parts of the country it might be labeled that way. It is as common here as ground beef. It's sold as larger, triangular-shaped pieces that are are usually no more than two pounds or so. You can also buy it cut into narrow-ish "steaks" such as in this photo. Again, it's not the tenderest cut but so much good flavor IMO.

We are, in fact, grilling tri-tip tomorrow night. These are two of my favorite marinades for it. I probably use the first one the most, but both are good.

#1 Tri-Tip Marinade

1/3 cup soy sauce
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T. vegetable oil

Combine and pour over meat. Cover and chill for 6-8 hours (turning occasionally) or overnight.

#2 Tri-Tip Marinade

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 T. sugar
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 T. Worcestershire
1 1/2 to 2 pounds tri-tip, trimmed

Combine all ingredients and pour over tri-tip. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 6-8 hours or overnight.

Thanks for the marinade recipes, Chloe. I raise grass fed beef and it's lean and flavorful, but not very well marbled and so sometimes needs a bit of tenderizing. Although I think good beef doesn't need any help, flavor-wise, sometimes it does benefit from a good marinade and some time with a tenderizer.

Annie

Coulotte steaks here come off the Sirloin Cap.

The cap when I can find it is expensive here. Last one I bought was $15.00 a pound. I buy it whole and grill it. I don't care for flank steaks but love the cap.

Can't find lamb shanks where I live now, either (Eastern part of Tennessee). Shame, too.

Oh my gosh, it all looks so wonderful.

No lamb around here except for Easter, either. We're already down to only a package or two of shoulder chops in the stores here. Publix used to order it in if you wanted it, but now they claim they can't get it, which I don't believe.

I suppose that technically lamb is available here, if you order well in advance from the local farm co-op, but I know I would be like a friend of mine who ordered some once. When I asked him how it was he just said that it was probably excellent, but he really didn't know because he spent all his time eating it thinking, "I can't believe I paid $36 for two lamb chops."

So many good ideas and thoughts. Will have at the recipes when I can find shanks in our stores. Thanks everyone for posting.

Western Canada, BC and Alberta, has a superior meat selection across the board and the best I've ever had. A bit more expensive than our sad grocery selection but much more affordable than the high end NYC butcher shops.

Every cut can be found in NY, but not at Stop-n-Shop. : ) I don't go near those counters. We just eat smaller portions and get good quality.

@Annie, I agree with not doing much to really good beef. Tri-tip is one cut that seems to benefit from a marinade.

dandyrandylou, sorry for the digression to tri-tip!

We just eat smaller portions and get good quality.

Unfortunately, the butcher shops around here have the same quality as the big chains, just more different cuts available. But even in an area with some of the wealthiest people in the whole country, prime meat is not easy to find for some reason.

Sidetrack...AnnT, how did you cook the leeks and turnip/rutabaga? Are they just simmered and buttered? DH has been asking for leeks.

No! No! Don't use leeks. Around this time of the year, for a few days only, ramps (Wild leeks) are available.

Ramps with Lamb! (Yam not shown)

dcarch

Writerblock. Check your local farms, CSA. Things here have been changing dramatically the last few years. Once pick-up only on certain days and hard to make the restrictions...I can now get chicken and eggs just ten miles away. It is a 25 acre farm that only has CSA veg that I don't need but they have become a drop-off convenient location.

Our meat share had a pick-up 3-6pm and not convenient and a bit rude about it. (if you can't get there, send a friend). Like restaurant chefs that used to complain about special dietary requests, they have taken on the challenge or lose customers.

With more customers they have another drop off that can keep things frozen easily so we have 2 days to swing by.

Thanks, Sleevendog, but unfortunately I live in an area that is not amenable to sheep farming. The only option is the co-op I mentioned which has some farms way upstate with sheep, and it is literally $40 lb or more for lamb, to be ordered at least one month in advance, more during the winter when the population is higher. Chickens are only $20/lb, bacon $25/lb, and only thick cut or slab.

I live in an area with many organic vegetable farms but they don't bother with CSAs because they make much more money selling to the fancy restaurants down in Palm Beach County. Several big local farms are transitioning to marijuana and stopping the veggies entirely.

There is one guy who does eggs/poultry locally, but if you aren't already signed up all you're eligible for is duck eggs for the first year.

You can order lamb from Amazon. but I almost fainted at the price.

dcarch, again, amazing dish! Ramps are prolific where we live, but digging for them in the National Park was limited/outlawed some time ago. We have ramps in yards and everywhere else tho', and schools will kick kids out for eating wild raw ramps due to the overwhelmingly bad breath, LOL!

I checked again yesterday and only found lamp chops. And those are pretty pricey.

By the way, I linked to three recipes for lamb shanks earlier on in this thread... three of my OWN recipes. The post is now gone. Whomever "reported" it or whatever, come up front and and man up and declare yourself. My cooking blog (and people do post to their own personal cooking blogs on this site) gets absolutely no monetary advantage, not even from Amazon at this point.

I would actually have copy-pasted, but I've discovered in the past that the GW format and the Wordpress format do not mess unless I want to spend at least an extra half hour re-formatting for GW. For each recipe, NO.

That is weird? I just post links to most recipes from other cooking blogs.(I don't have a blog). They aren't deleted. ETA: I don't know why a link to your blog would be deleted.

Edited to make clear that the links I post sometimes are recipes I like from other blogs.

I for sure didn't flag your post.

Not me, artemis_ma. I've posted links to other's food blogs without them being deleted - is that an issue here, are we not allowed? I didn't know, if so.

I also didn't know you had a food blog! Any way to find it? I'd like to read it : )

Could you post the links again? I will save quick to my computer and then print. I saved this thread for ALL the recipes. I probably won't use lamb, but I have lots of venison shanks and they are about the same.

Or post link to blog. Thanks.

I guess I need to go ahead and print all of the above recipes before they disappear.

Sherry, I think what artemas_ma is saying is that she posted a link to 3 recipes on a blog she has, not the actual recipes because they are difficult to type out, and apparently someone reported that post and it was deleted (is that correct?). I am unaware of all the rules here, so I didn't think posting links to food blogs was not allowed.

Yes, that is what I meant 2many. I just rewrote my post to reflect that. Unless it is something that I just came up with, I just link to the blog for anyone's recipe.

I have saved one person's blog from here, but I am not sure if it is Artemis_ma's or not.

I doubt anyone would report that. Does your blog have adds? I suppose a direct link is an issue noticed by a 'not-so-visible' moderator.? Does not make sense that anyone here would report.

Actually I have given many links to recipes often...

sleevendog, most of the blogs I link a recipe I like to, do have ads. That is how they pay for the blog. I haven't checked, maybe those disappeared also.

I just checked, and the one in the deviled egg thread that I linked to, is still there.

I solved the mystery! Dandyrandylou made two posts and you commented on the second one artemis_ma! Here is the one you commented on. One was in Kitchen Table and one was in Cooking on April 18th.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5258013/anyone-for-lamb-shanks

Thanks Sherry! Good detective work : ) artemis_ma, I've saved your food blog link now : ) Nice to know no-one deleted/flagged your links : )

Here's my go to recipe for Lamb Shanks. I have had it for years and I'll be darned if I know where it came from. LOL

Lamb Shanks

Serves 2:

2 lamb shanks
on the bone

1 medium
onion, sliced thin

3 carrots,
coarsely julienned

1 small red
bell pepper, chopped

2 large
potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 can of beer
(lager)

2 tbs butter

1 tbs sweet
paprika powder

1 tsp
coriander

4 cloves of
garlic (or to taste), minced

salt and
pepper to taste

Melt the
butter in a frying pan (or do what I do: use a cast-iron dutch oven, so you
don't need to transfer the stew to an oven-proof dish.) Fry the onion and
garlic in the butter until the onion pieces are golden, remove from the pan and
brown the meat pieces. Put meat and onion into an oven-proof dish, add the
vegetables and the beer and seasonings. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/180°C)
for about 1 hour. Adjust the seasoning, then bake for about 15 minutes more
without the lid, to reduce and thicken the sauce.

Serve with
rice or freshly baked bread and salad.

Yeah, no idea why my post vanished.

I know lots of people post to their, or other, blogs, so I have no idea why. There are ads on it, because it's a free Wordpress blog, but that's the deal if you get one of those (I get no bennies from the ads, but presumably Wordpress does, which is why Wordpress works this way...)

My blog is at: goatsandgreens.wordpress.com -- in the search bar (upper right on a laptop), ask for lamb shank. There should be three recipes, including one that dates back to this past Easter. My favorite is the Moroccan one from a couple or so years ago.

If this doesn't disappear, I may post the specific links again.

artemis_ma, It DIDN'T vanish! It is on the other thread titled the same as this one. Go up three posts. The link to the other thread is there. The links are still there. Here it is again. This is the cooking forum. The other is in the Kitchen Table forum.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5258013/anyone-for-lamb-shanks

You posted in the Kitchen Table forum, not this one.

@dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m

"NY is supposed to be the center of everything. Yet, I have never seen tri-tip."

You can get it here. Not sure where you are, but if you're in or near the city, Ottomanelli & Sons butchers on Bleecker st. carries it (and every other cut.)

Moosemac, I used your recipe that is posted above. I used venison shanks and I did have to substitute for the beer. I used 1 cup chicken broth and 1/2 cup chardonnay. it took a little longer to cook, since the vension is tougher than the lamb, but it is fantastic. Don't know if my husband (picky) will like it, he didn't want any supper tonight.

I am going to work my way through all of the recipes on both posts.

2many, you live in Eastern Tennessee? That's where my DH is from and his sister still lives in Caryville, his brother in Knoxville. We go there occasionally to visit.

Here I can get lamb shanks at the Mediterranean Market, but it's a 60 mile drive. One of the local farms is trying something new, they'll deliver for a $5.00 fee with a minimum $25 order. It's a little pricey for the lamb though: https://www.provisionfamilyfarms.com/store/c7/Lamb.html

Annie

Sherry, thanks! I need a tag reminder to know where I am these days!!

Well, what was confusing was both posts had the same title and were started on the same day. I didn't find it until I searched for lamb shanks and two came up in a row. I want to try your Moroccan one next. I need to get some of the ingredients first.

Yes, Annie! We're further East than Caryville and Knoxville, about 2 hours from Caryville! Would love to visit with you sometime if you are ever this way... but not now! We are a mess with the demo!

I have a Sprouts nearby in NC and they have wonderful fresh lamb. But, mostly in cubes or chops. Around Easter they had whole legs but I was not brave enough to attempt leg of lamb. Last week they had shanks. As I have just learned to appreciate lamb, I may attempt shank . What I did not like about lamb previously was the strong gamey flavor and toughness of the meat. I am now inclined to believe I had old poorly prepared lamb.

As for tri-tip, love a good smoked tri-tip! But, have been told it is a "regional" cut and can't seem to get one in NC.

Hmmm, may have to look for tri-tip now as I've never tried it and I've got a grill and smoker tube waiting for me to fire up!

Well, on road back from visiting my granddaughter I stopped and picked up some Lamb Shanks. Now to figure out which recipe to use.

If you can get American lamb, it is less gamey than New Zealand or Australian lamb.

American lamb is grain fed.

dcarch

I often buy boneless leg of lamb for grilling which is readily available here. This is probably one of my favorite marinades for grilled lamb. This is enough for 2 to 4 lbs. of lamb.

2/3 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
2 T. chopped fresh mint
1 T. chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 tsp. ground black pepper

Whisk ingredients together. Pour over meat, cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 6 hours, turning occasionally. Bring to room temp before grilling.