Sous vide rack of lamb

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It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a rack of lamb. Yes, a whole rack of a lamb. Indeed, it’s been a long time since I’ve bought lamb cutlets or even lamb chops. You see, in Australia, baby sheep, i.e., lamb, is really expensive. It never used to be that way. Back when I was a boy, lamb meat was cheap. It was what we ate a couple of times a week because chops and cutlets were cheap, fatty and tasty. These days you may pay the GDP of a small country for lean fat-free lamb that lacks taste and flavour. After all, all the flavour is in the fat. I hate the way supermarket butchers trim away all the fat. They should leave that for the customer to make the choice. I don’t particularly care that some people don’t know how to dissect away fat, it’s not hard to learn skills these days. If all the fat was left on the meat I’d happily cook the meat with the fat on and enjoy all the extra flavour.

Can you believe lamb costs $32.50 per kilogram, for readers in the USA, that’s about $16 per pound.

I bought all the ingredients from Coles on Saturday morning. I cooked with the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker.

Recipe

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Sous vide rack of lamb that cost the GDP of a small country. It tasted good though.

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

3 hrs

Searing time

5 mins

Total Time

3 hrs 5 mins

 

In Australia, lamb, especially a rack of lamb is hugely expensive. This is a meal to savour and as you eat it, knowing you won't eat it again for years. In this recipe I also sous vide cook some vegetables.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Australian

Keyword: Lamb rack, Rack of lamb, Sous vide

Servings: 2

Calories: 500 kcal

Author: Gary

Ingredients

• Rack of lamb
• Iodised salt flakes
• Freshly cracked pepper
• Garlic powder
• Rosemary
• Mint
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Peas
• Corn
• Cream
• Cheese
• Poppy seeds
• Sesame seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Fried shallots
• Cashew nuts
• Chilli flakes

Instructions

1. Season the lamb with the iodised salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and garlic powder.
   
2. Before placing the rack into the vacuum bag, add a few little chunks of butter and some sprigs of rosemary.
   
3. After sealing the bag, place it into the water bath which has reached 57 °C/135 °F.
4. Cook for 3 hours.
5. Place the frozen broccoli, cauliflower, peas and corn into a vacuum bag and add some iodised salt and chilli flakes.
6. After the lamb has been cooking for 90 minutes, add the bag of vegetables. This will cause the temperature of the water bath to drop hence the 3 hour total cooking time for the lamb.
7. Remove the vegetables after 1 hour and empty the bag into an oven-proof dish. Add some cream, cheese, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds and then bake until the cheese is golden.
8. After the 3 hours for the lamb, remove the bag from the water bath and remove the lamb from the bag.
9. Pat the lamb dry all over with paper towel.
10. Sear all the surfaces in a hot pan and touch up with a cook's blow torch.

11. Carve the rack into cutlets and savour the awesomeness of the rare lamb meat.

12. Plate up the lamb and vegetable bake.
13. Shoot a photograph.
14. Eat the meal.
15. Remember to savour it because after spending so much money on a small amount of lamb you won't get to do this again for many years.
16. Wash the dishes.
17. Write the recipe.
18. Write the blog post.
19. Hope your friends and even people who aren't friends share this recipe post on social media.

Recipe Notes

Disclaimer

I have no culinary training nor qualifications.

This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner.

The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.

Photographs

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Questions and answers

Why do you think lamb is so expensive in Australia?

It’s long been said, Australia’s economy rode on the back of sheep. I’m guessing that was more about wool than meat.

I assume it’s because demand grew and we tend to export all the quality products. As demand grows, the price increases.

I blame the people who started raving about how good lamb was and how cheap it was. When you know something is good, shut up I say 😂

What do you prefer? Rack of lamb or lamb backstrap?

While last week’s sous vide lamb backstrap was good, I could eat a rack of lamb cutlets all day long. They are like meaty lollipops.

How did the sous vide vegetables taste?

Not too bad. It would be quicker and cheaper to cook them with microwave radiation. I know some people are concerned about microwave radiation and given the vacuum bags are BPA-free, this could be an alternative option if you’re concerned with microwave radiation. Of course, you could just boil or steam the vegetables. My aim was to minimise the amount of electricity I used to cook.

You received some negative feedback from the sous vide kangaroo you cooked. Will the lamb also receive negative feedback?

I don’t know. The people who didn’t like the kangaroo post were interested in not killing kangaroos. I saw some tweets which mentioned cruelty in the kangaroo culling business. For example, there was a comment about joeys of shot female kangaroos being clubbed to death. I assume it’s safer to do that than shoot the joey at close range. I’m guessing a quick neck twist would work just as well, just like the way I’ve killed chickens before cooking.

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Final words

I loved this meal. I hope you can try it too. If you do, please let me know how yours went.

Sarcasm. Yes, when I say the GDP of a small country, it’s hyperbole, don’t take it literally.
Saturday 2018-03-24 (That 24 March 2018, or if you’re from North America, it’s March 24, 2018)