Best lamb cookbooks

September 30, 2023 6:19 AM

We have access to delicious locally raised, grass fed lamb (and sometimes mutton). What are the best cookbooks that have a strong focus on lamb? We are looking for a cookbook with LOTS of different recipes.

Searching on the internet seems to give me the same lamb recipes over and over again, so really trying to go expansive here. Pictures are strongly preferred. We'd like to explore different flavor profiles. Assume we're OK with buying new ingredients, tools; learning new techniques; being patient. Ideally the foods really showcase the lamb vs. oh ya, just dump all this on it and it just tastes like beef.

We get our lamb as entire animals with custom butchering. This means we welcome recipes for all the cuts of a lamb (and parts) -- ground, racks, chops, breast, shoulder, leg, whole, liver, bones, etc. In other words, don't have access to unlimited racks of lamb b/c ya-know, a single animal has only so much of their meat as rack. So, probably a cookbook with the 50 ways of how to make rack of lamb is less useful, but a cookbook about how to use an entire animal is very very useful.

Please generally recommend physical books. I want this book to sit in the kitchen for casual flipping through. It is OK to send a link, but only if it's too a long compendium of lamb recipes (e.g., this blog filtered on lamb has 10 recipes) vs. links to a single recipe.

posted by ellerhodes to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

Best answer: First I thought such a thing would be impossible to find (except for promotional stuff from the industry), and then for fun, I googled and found this: Delicious Lamb. I haven't seen the book, but I have read other things by the same author, and he is generally very good. The link is to a Danish site because all the Amazon sites say it is out of print, but there was a new edition last year, which I think is a recommendation in itself. Speciality cookbooks rarely go into more than one edition.

What I would do in your place is buy a great Middle Eastern or Central Asian cookbook, because lamb and mutton features in so many dishes in those regions. For instance, I have found some delicious lamb stews on sites with Afghan cuisine. I don't remember how many lamb recipes Zaitoun has, and my book is 550 km away. Claudia Roden's classic Book of Middle Eastern Food has about 70 recipes, but no pictures.

I sometimes cook what we call robber lamb. It was inspired by stories I heard on Sardinia, of robbers who would steal a lamb, sear it over the open campfire, and then wrap it in herbs and bury it under the fire. In my home oven, I first sear a leg of lamb under the grill till it is golden brown all over, then wrap it in a very generous amount of herbs, and then in aluminum foil. I turn the heat way down, to 120-130 C, and forget about it. This is why it is also nick-named twice forgotten lamb, since I also often forget it under the grill as well. After at least 3 hours, you take it out and it is amazing. This tradition exists all the way from Portugal to Pakistan, and in Greece it is Kleftiko.

I know you said books, but this link looks so good, you should take a peek.

And now I want to buy a lamb off my neighbor.
posted by mumimor at 7:26 AM on September 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Sheep farmer and enthusiastic eater of lamb here! I don't have a physical book to recommend but I second mumimor's recommendation of Middle Eastern or Central Asian cookbooks. And not only that, but many recipes from around the world that have been presented as beef recipes to a western European/American audience may have originated with lamb or goat as a more generally available red meat. I have gradually swapped in lamb for beef in most Italian and Mexican recipes that I cook and it works great. So in addition to looking for lamb focused cookbooks, you might just start with cookbooks for cuisines you like and swap in lamb for beef.
posted by Rhedyn at 10:08 AM on September 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Meat Book looks like a good bet.

(I know Amazon is morally dubious, but they link to affordable used copies, and they have a "read a sample" feature which is useful.)
posted by Pallas Athena at 10:19 AM on September 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Lamb brains are often served deep fried in traditional Roman Jewish cuisine. You can find recipes online. My first encounter with them was at a Roman Jewish restaurant where it was roasted in the oven with sage and olive oil and served in the ceramic roasting pot. I haven't been able to find a recipe, in books or online but I often think about it.

You can use the liver in all the ways you would usually use liver, and it will be excellent.

One of my friends invited me to a tartare night, and among other things we had a lamb tartare. It was my favourite. So think if you might want to reserve the filet for a raw treat.
posted by mumimor at 10:43 AM on September 30, 2023

Most amazing lamb I've ever eaten was from an Afghani restaurant, so maybe look for a cookbook for that cuisine.
posted by Jacqueline at 1:22 PM on October 1, 2023