National Culinary Review

FLAVORS

She says Rioja’s most popular dish is a lamb duet—a lamb porterhouse with lamb merguez made from the trim—served with couscous and a smoky tomato sauce. “Since we are pairing it with 3 oz. of the sausage, we can afford the porterhouse,” Jasinski says.

begin to understand why lamb chops cost $45 at certain restaurants. If you have a 40 lb. whole lamb, you are basically getting 2 lbs. of chop and 10 lbs. of leg meat.”

THE WHOLE THING

Shanna Pacifico is chef at New York’s Back Forty, sister restaurant to Savoy, also in New York, one of the nation’s first market-driven, farm-to-table restaurants. Both venues are owned/operated by Peter Hoffman. In January, Back Forty hosted two lamb-butchering demos and farm-to-table feasts featuring lamb from 3-Corner Field Farm, Shushan, N. Y.

The restaurant may do smoked lamb
croquettes, a bacon-wrapped liver pâté
or lamb kibbe tartare as a first course.
“We use the primals for the kibbe, dice up
the chops, loin and tenderloin, and toss
with quinoa instead of bulgur,” Pacifico
says. “The quinoa has a nice pop to it
and creates a good contrast to the lamb.
For the shoulders, we often do an ancho
pepper roast or a chili-based braise.”
“Using whole animals was something kind
of new to me before I started working with
Peter,” says Pacifico. “It’s interesting talking
to other chefs and, of course, the farmers
when you have the opportunity. Each animal
is different, and it’s good to find out how old
it is, whether it has been hung or not, and if
so, for how long. You begin to get the feel
of the entire process.

“There are so many things you can do with a lamb. When you break it down and really see the quantity of chops compared to the quantity of leg and shoulder meat, you

SOURCE LOCALLY

In northern California, in the small town of Point Reyes Station on the Pacific coast, Christian Caiazzo is gaining a national following with his farm-to-table restaurant Osteria Stellina. He sources nearly every ingredient from one of the surrounding region’s farms, ranches and fisheries. He buys lamb from nearby Barinaga Ranch, Marshall, Calif., which raises East Friesian dairy sheep with a little Katahdin bred into them for hardiness. The Katahdin is a “meat” breed, while the Friesian is “dairy.” According to Marcia Barinaga, who comes from a long line of Basque sheepherders, dairy sheep produce nice lambs with good growth and carcass quality.

“We take all the lambs that they don’t need for milking,” says Caiazzo. “We started with 15 the first year, and now we are up to 80. When we get them, we scramble like mad to put as much as we can on the menu and use up all the different parts. We smoke and braise the shoulder, and make a ravioli stuffing and ragu for pasta. We split the neck, braise it, and serve it with polenta and braised local greens. We seam out the legs, french-cut them, and make individual fillets that we grill, slice and serve with a starch and vegetable. This is actually something I like to promote—you don’t need the tenderloin, sirloin or chops to have good grilling meat. We also do a lot of tongue. It’s delicious, and we often serve it braised with cider and sliced thin.” Says Barinaga, “I love what he does with our lamb, and also love the fact that he honors the animal by using every part of the meat and each organ so skillfully. There is an Italian saying that what every animal needs is a good life, a good death, a good butcher and a good chef. I feel my lambs are blessed with all four.”