why weren't my lamb shanks meltingly tender

[whoneedssleepanyway]

I made a lamb tagine on Thurs for dinner with friends last night. I normally make it with diced lamb but decided against my better judgement to use lamb shanks. I browned them first and them simmered the whole thing slowly for about 2.5 hours on top of the hob. The sauce was basically tinned chopped tomatos, some stock, spices, apricots etc

The sauce was fine but the lamb was quite tough to get of the bone in places and not falling off with that melting quality you can get with lamb shanks and I was quite disappointed.

Was it how I cooked it? I can't believe it was the lamb itself as was from waitrose and always find their meat very good....

Could have been that it needed slightly longer. Shanks are thicker than diced lamb so probably take longer to break down.

Cogito spoke to my mum and she said the same thing, she said she would have done even longer and slower and in the oven.

Yes, long and slow, i'd probably go for closer to 3.5/4 hrs for shanks tbh, they need lots of time to break down all the collagen around the muscle.

I cook mine for 4 hours (on a med heat) in the oven, in stock, tomatoes and herbs. I love lamb shanks, shame my dh is fussy and hates meet on the bone .

Yes, in the oven on about Gas Mark 3 for about five or six hours, that's the way!

Thanks all, good to know, the packaging was misleading as said 2.5 hours to cook but they were pretty big....will go for at least 4 hours next time!