Stewing lamb - is this normal?

CCP

I bought some 'stewing lamb' at the supermarket butcher's counter last night, to use in a HM curry. When I started chopping it up a short time ago, though, I found that what looked like a generous amount of meat actually includes a lot of bone - a couple of the pieces were more bone than meat. Being a good OSer (;)), it's no big deal to stretch the meat with lots of veg, but I don't buy lamb often and I'm wondering if it's normal to have that much bone or if I should have a word with the supermarket next time I'm in there. Can any lamb fans enlighten me, please?

floss2

There will be an awful lot of flavour in those bones - why not chuck them into your curry and then remove before serving?

CCP

floss2 wrote: »

There will be an awful lot of flavour in those bones - why not chuck them into your curry and then remove before serving?

Now why didn't I think of that? :doh: I've just rescued them from the waste pile (not the bin, I hasten to add! ) and thrown them into the casserole dish. Thanks, Floss!

Skint_yet_Again

Hi CCP, it sounds like you may have bought neck of lamb
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/lamb_neck

When I buy lamb its usually from Moresons and labeled "casserole lamb", seems to be shoulder or leg. Luckily the last lot I got was YS from £3.64 to £1.75 and no bone and is labelled as casserole leg of lamb.

Hope that helps, and hope your curry is nom nom

Fruball

I would be mad if I found that.

I once bought value lamb of some description and by the time I had picked off all the meat and weighed it, I calculated the actual meat to cost the same per kilo as lamb steaks (boneless) so it wasn't worth the effort.

meritaten

yes, the cheapest stewing lamb is neck of lamb. and yes it does contain bones. I prefer to buy neck of lamb for Cawl (traditional welsh lamb stew) as the long slow cooking extracts the maximum flavour from the bones. When the stew is done the meat has all fallen off the bone and you can either fish them out or let the diners do it. my next best choice is shoulder - which doesnt contain bones.
I do wish the supermarkets would put which cut of meat has been used on the labels. Why? because I know darn well that neck of lamb is cheap as chips in the local butchers while supermarkets can call it 'stewing' lamb and charge twice as much!

CCP

Thanks for that, everyone. I'm such a novice at buying lamb I never even thought to ask what cut it was. It has made a very tasty curry so I'm not quite as miffed as I was at first - I think I will mention it to them next time I'm in there, though, as it wasn't cheap and I'm still not particularly happy that a third of the weight turned out to be bone.

Skint_yet_Again

I dont think many meats are cheap any more. "Cheaper" cuts like neck of lamb, belly pork etc are all expensive now.

The casserole lamb (boneless leg) I bought is usually £11 per kg but I only buy it when it has large ys reduction.

meritaten

CCP - I would buy shoulder next time for curry - less waste and you dont really need the flavour imparted by the bones as the curry will mask it anyway.
for stew I would recommend you try a mix of shoulder and neck - simply because the bones WILL add flavour.

CCP

Thanks meritaten - that's really helpful. Hopefully next time I'll get into town early enough to go to the butcher where I can specify the cut I'd like - and I know now what cut I need, so thanks very much. :T

Just as an update - I went into the supermarket today as I was down that way anyway and told them I wasn't happy, and they refunded double the cost and would have replaced the lamb as well if I'd wanted it. Excellent service! :T (It was Waitrose, BTW - I believe in giving praise where it's due. )