Yes, which is why I never cook them. Hubby will not eat anything the least bit pink. I used to cook them for my dad.

Yes, but not darker than medium rare. Cook them hot and fast. A couple of minutes on each side. At 130 they're rare. At 140 they're medium.

Medium rare is good…about 130 degrees. If you like, you can mix some chopped garlic, rosemary, olive oil, s&p to rub on them before cooking. Doing it a few hours in advance to hold in the fridge is good. They’ll cook fairly quick, depending on thickness. Cover with foil and let them rest a few minutes before serving.

ETA - The temp will rise a bit during resting.

Medium rare is a creation of the restaurant industry because it's easy to cook a little more if it's under and trash if it's over. If you like medium rare, that's fine. The most common preference for beef before the med-rare takeover was medium, and for lamb was medium-well. I saw one of the great lights of the world's greatest chefs on TV where younger American's were criticizing the lamb for being over cooked, saying just this, that it's best medium-well and that he was very happy about it.

Hobbitmom, try it. If you don't like it, cook it some more.

Re the making, I only make rib chops (my very favorite thing). There are also shoulder and loin "chops". My way is to put a flat grill plate--the kind wit the ridges) in the oven while heating to broil 375°F. When the oven is fully heated and stable, add the lamb chops, turn once. Finish with good salt at the table. Add a sauce if it pleases you. If it's baby lamb, sweet and small, keep it all mild. Later in the year is enough for bolder sauces. Many people equate lamb with rosemary or mint. Do try the lambchops without such strong flavor the first time and add either of those next time if you think you'd like them. Good lamb should not taste particularly gamey, but other than the sweet, young variety, it should have a distinct flavor that identifies it as lamb.

Have fun! I hope you enjoy it.

We eat lamb chops frequently. They're much easier to cook than beef steak imo and we prefer them. I grill, fry, bake, casserole or roast them. They vary in thickness and hot and fast isn't necessarily best for thick ones. They'll be raw in the middle. Not just pink but bloody. As well as rosemary, garlic and middle eastern spices go well with lamb.

Melt a pat of butter on the hot chop before eating.

I like lamb more done than I like beef.

Lamb is just delectable. I feel slightly guilty about it but then smugly congratulate myself for not sitting down to a plate of veal or foie gras. Not that I wouldn’t down those too. My conscience is very soft-spoken.

Yesterday DH brought home a boneless lamb leg we’ll grill a piece of tonight. Delicious marinated in red wine, soy sauce, garlic, rosemary and pepper.

Mm, lamb chops 😋

Lamb chops used to be so inexpensive - no more, it seems. When I was a kid I loved broiled lamb chops with sweet mint jelly.

Nowadays, garlic + fresh rosemary are my go-tos for lamb, along with S&P.

Medium rare is my preference.

Thank you all for your lamb chop suggestions. Had them last night with roasted asparagus and carrots, and dinner rolls. They were sublime. Very tender and flavorful. I did, however, calculate them to be $1.86 per bite. Not something I will do often. I might consider a leg of lamb this spring though.

My tip for lamb chops? Don't ever serve them to me. I detest lamb. Absolutely detest it.

A related story: Way back in the day my boyfriend's mother invited me to stay over for dinner. I would have made up some excuse to leave had I known she was going to serve lamb chops, but too late I already said I'd stay. I tried. I really did.....but I couldn't swallow it. Here I am sitting in front of handsome boy's family with a panicked look on my face like oh cr*p what am I supposed to do. All I could do was spit it out into a napkin as gracefully as one possibly can... She was quite gracious about it...but still...well, at least I didn't physically gag, that would have been worse...

That's a such great pity not to be able to eat lamb. I'd take lamb any day over beef, which I find tasteless in comparison. We buy more of it than any other meat, except perhaps chicken. If I can get mutton, that's even better.

I've made it 63 years and have only had lamb one time when my niece's ex-husband (who was French) made a leg of lamb at Christmas. I ate some but didn't much care for it or the mint jelly. I'll stick with beef, pork, or chicken. Most grocers around here don't sell lamb anyway.

@porkchop_z5b_MI . Just pork chops for you then. Got it. Ha-Ha.

Publix sells it here, but it is very expensive, since it is imported.

I aslo hate mint. Lamb or mutton seems to always use mint and a bunch of other spices.

Beautiful pic, Floral!

You can have my share of the lamb Floral. There are a few ranchers around here that have sheep. Not sure what they do with it or where they sell it. Cattle, hogs, and poultry dominate in my part of the world. I do have some wool clothing so there is that :-)

My dad would never touch lamb or rabbit - he said because all he could picture was cute little bunnies and baby lambs...

I love lamb. In fact, other than bacon or sausage, I prefer it to pork. And local stores carry plenty of it. But it is not inexpensive so I don't have it frequently. Depending on what I am fixing, I have had it with mint or with a more Mediterranean flavor palate or sometimes just with S&P. It's all good!!

What I never see for sale is mutton. Not sure why as it is better for slow cooked dishes like Irish stew or hot pot

Plenty of lamb available here, but I also never see mutton. I tend to use lamb shoulder or boneless leg for slow cooking. For any lamb fans, this stew’s a favorite.

Lamb and Artichoke Stew (From Jeff Smith - Frugal Gourmet)

4 T. butter
2 pounds boneless lamb, cubed (boneless leg or shoulder)
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
Generous 1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
6-oz. can tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine (such as Pinot Grigio - see *Note below)
2 14-oz. cans artichoke hearts in brine/water, drained (not marinated in oil)
1 tsp. dried dill
3 T. lemon juice

Melt butter in large pot. Add lamb and saute until lightly browned. Remove the meat. In same pot, saute onions along with garlic and parsley. Return meat to pot. Add salt, pepper, tomato paste and wine. Simmer, covered, for about an hour or until lamb is very tender. Add artichokes, dill and lemon juice. Simmer for about another hour, or until lamb is tender). Taste for seasoning. Serve over rice or pilaf.

*Note: I often add more liquid, such as 3/4 cup wine and 3/4 cup chicken stock.

Even here mutton isn't common. But if we ever see it we buy it.

Just like beef, lamb is available in very different qualities. Also different flavors. The little ones are sweet and often bland. Good starting point with lamb, but don't spice them or drown them in rosemary or mint! Well grown lamb has more flavor, which varies in the cut. My mother bought whole California lambs (they built suburbs--no more California lamb in the stores), butchered and flash frozen, so I've eaten the meat (not organs) of the whole thing. My favorites are the rib chops and riblets--the former broiled and salted at the table only, the latter lightly marinated and barbecued over charcoal (i.e., not gas). Lamb stew is also wonderful (I prefer it to shepherd's pie, though that's good too). As are lamb kebobs--okay broiled, but barbecue is better. Lamb shanks (forelegs) are best braised, IMHO, to break down the in between stuff, and shoulder is good roasted. Tenderloin, as you'd expect, is best handled delicately.

A great way to make a leg of lamb (hind legs) is to braise it in red wine and herbs or garlic. Please don't push garlic cloves into it, before you know what it tastes like without! It ends up tasting musty, to me, and ruins it. If you love your meat made that way, once you've actually tasted good lamb without it being drowned in strong flavors, go for it (just don't invite me). A lot of people I've met, who say they don't like lamb, haven't had it when it wasn't drowned in garlic, rosemary or mint. They haven't actually tasted the lamb! Again, no issue if you like it that way, but these strong flavors were meant to play with mutton, which can be gamey to funky, depending on breed, climate and what it's been eating. I have no issues with people eating it how they like--just don't judge good young lamb by these other flavors pushed into or on it. Same with Mediterranean spices. Spiced lamb is delicious, IMO, but you won't learn the true flavor that way.

I understand that the lambs we get are the culls - usually males - and that since we don't produce wool to the extent we did in the past, there's just not that many sheep being raised in the U. S. nowadays. Australia, NZ, & the UK have plenty it seems.

Aldi here sometimes has butterflied legs on sale. I think that's the best value for the money. Their ground lamb is inexpensive but so fatty! They also had split lamb breast plates super cheap recently, and those looked like mostly fat as well.

Not sure about the rest of the country but the bulk of west coast lamb comes from Oregon and they are bred specifically for consumption. They are not grown for their wool and they are not culls.

Hogget (a sheep aged 1-2 years) and mutton (older than a hogget) used to be freely available here but are now very rare. I think it’s because the marketers have decided that most people want meats which are quick to cook, and hogget/mutton requires low, slow cooking. Both have more flavour IMO and mutton is awesome for curries as it stand up better to the longer cooking time. Occasionally my butcher will get some mutton in and I pounce on it. I do wish he could get hogget as a roast leg of hogget is delicious and there’s a lot more meat than on a leg of lamb.

People who feel sorry for cute little lambs could look at eating them as saving them from a life as grown up, unintelligent sheep.

LOL! Colleen, a dear friend of the family had a sheep ranch. They were wool sheep, but I know exactly what you mean.. :)

Mutton used to be available in California, when I was young, but it wasn't popular. Now, we get lamb from Oregon or Colorado (I'm not fond of the latter) and I got some good lamb chops at a store I rarely shop at which were from Pennsylvania. I did find California grown lamb at a butcher awhile ago, but it was too fatty (I assume grown that way for high end restaurants where fatty is prized) and it was massively expensive. It tasted okay, but the Pennsylvania were much better. Whole Foods has the wee lambs from New Zealand and sometimes Icelandic (which I also don't like as much). Carol is thousands of miles away, however, and I assume she was talking about what they get there.

I'm with YOU Porkchop. My sister brought home a baby lamb when I was 5 years old. Bottle fed every morning at the crack of day light. My mom didn't want to get out of bed...she kept trying to get "me" to warm his milk, fix his bottle and feed him. I was a tiny little thang...got knocked down a few times....mom took over. Finally, my mom put him in the car, took him to the nearest sheep farmer....and gave him back. 🐑 I've tried lamb...it's too gamey for me. I don't like mint jelly.

I like lamb very much- it’s what we’re having for dinner tonight. I never had lamb until I was staying for a week during the school holidays at the farm home of a school friend. I discovered I loved it. In those days it was common for farmers (who were mostly wheat and sheep farmers back then) to kill and butcher their own meat for the table. One day we went and culled a sheep from the flock and brought it back to the house to keep it in a pen overnight to relax from the excitement of being chased around the paddock before it was caught. The next day, my friend’s dad killed it and we watched him butchering it. My friend said I’d probably be sick when I saw him taking out the insides, but instead I was fascinated.

My mother loathed lamb and never purchased or cooked it, which is why I hadn’t ever had it before.

It’s not mandatory to serve it with mint jelly (which I don’t like either).

@plllog, the liver (called the ”fry”) is delicious. I enjoy it lightly floured and pan fried in butter. I also like the kidneys, either in steak and kidney pie or served as a ”devil” in a spicy gravy.

I believe you about the organs. ;) My mother deigned let my father make chopped chicken livers (Jewish style wiith diced egg) for company a couple times per year. She didn't like the smell of mammal organs cooking and refused them all, though she put all but the kidneys of the chickens into the stock. :)