Whole lamb?

[bigbutsrus1]

Thinking of buying half or whole lamb from local farm shop. Think it works out at £12 a kg, £75 for half or £140 for whole. You get quite a bit of meat! Trouble is worried I may just eat/cook all the nice bits like leg/chops and not know what to do with the other bits like breast, rump or neck! The outlay seems ££££ but if I use it sparingly and sensibly it should work out better. Just getting fed up of Tesco's prices for not very tasty or quality meat. Any success stories before I spend or make a decision?!ð??ð??³

Is that particularly cheap per kilo? I know chops are pricy but fillet and breast never are. So, I wonder if it works out at about the same. Then again, it might be better quality Not helpful here. My main worry would be getting bored with that much lamb.

Got it wrong the lamb is £8.75 per kilo (beef was £12)! Think for a half its a min of 9kg in weight. We love lamb but thinking of getting beef also. My plan is to eat less meat so it does spread out over.... I am not sure how long!

I assume they cut it into meal sized portions. Why not try it and see.

Do you eat lamb and beef at least once a week? It just seems it could be around for a long time. 500g per meal. That's 18 weeks eating it once a week. Or maybe you have a very big family. Dunno. it seems like a lot to me,but I suppose that's the point.

I buy a whole lamb at a time. The taste is incomparable, far better than supermarkets for both price and quality. I portion a lot of it up as mixed pieces for casseroles and currys. Definitely worth it.

Zed, how often do you have lamb?! Or how long would whole lamb last.....very roughly! Thinking of getting beef at the same so to mix things up. Hoping it will make me make more things from scratch etc. cheers

Lamb breast is lovely, quite fatty but slow cooking melts it away. Neck is great for things like Irish Stew or slow curries in the oven (eg lamb biryani).

Any odd scraps can be chucked in a pot with some fat, onions and stock and cooked gently til they fall off the bone. Use the cooked lamb in pilaffs or pies.

Or dice/whizz/mince up the odd scraps of raw meat and make shepherds pie, keema curry or kofta kebabs or meatballs.

In my house if I bought a half lamb I'd have to buy a garlic farm to go with it at the same time

Definitely - we could probably eat lamb twice a week as a family, once during the week and once at the weekend - so many different ways to use it. And although that would only be 1kilo a week it would go a lot quicker if you had friends over once or twice.

If I were you I would buy the lamb and the beef. It would be so nice and fresh, probably far higher quality than meat from a supermarket. It would surely work out cheaper too.

Thanks for replies, think I am going to go for it! Even though the outlay is a lot hopefully my weekly shop will be way cheaper and will have more interesting meals!!

I did this and the biggest problem was identifying the cut up bits of meat! I was OK with leg and shoulder....but not so sure about the rest.

I'd do it again, but you do need a lot of space in the freezer!

saddle of lamb is a fab roasting cut, breast can be poached, then cut into strips, breadcrumbed and grilled. Neck and scrag make fantastic lamb and barley broth and you can brown off any bones and add them to boost the flavour of casseroles or curries. You can slice the rump and cook it like beef rump