Wholesale Lamb & Mutton Cuts

There is one forequarter per animal incorporating the neck, shank, breast and shoulder and accounting for around 30% of the carcase. As a well exercised area with ample connective tissue, forequarter cuts suit slow, moist cooking; revealing tender and flavoursome meat.

The forequarter produces a number of cuts including roasts, racks, ribs and chops to accommodate a range of foodservice applications. The shoulder can be prepared bone in to impart additional flavour or easily deboned for a versatile butterflied cut which can also be stuffed and rolled. Slow cooked shoulder cuts are also perfect for shredding and using in a variety of dishes and cuisines. For an economical alternative to the loin rack, the forequarter rack is prepared from the shoulder; the blade is removed and the ribs trimmed and exposed, creating what looks like a row of ‘chops’. The forequarter rack contains plenty of connective tissue, so is best suited to moist, slower cooking methods.

Shanks come from the area of meat and bone that sits above the knee joint and below the leg. It’s prepared from both a forequarter and a leg by a cut through the joint that connects it to either the shoulder or leg bone.

Lamb shanks are almost always slow cooked in liquid to deliver flavour from the bone and pull-apart tenderness. Trimmed shanks, or drumsticks, have had the end of the shank bone scraped clean of excess fat and meat to expose the bone.

Accounting for 9.5% of the carcase, the rack is prepared from a side of lamb by removing the forequarter using a straight vertical cut along the rib bone and a horizontal cut along the top of the flap.

It contains rib bones, backbone and the thick, meaty rib eye muscle. Reaching its full potential when roasted the rack is usually further prepared by the removal of the cap and frenching the bones. Cutlets are simply cut from the rack – versatile and easy to cook, cutlets are tender and suit high temperature cooking methods such as pan-fry and grill.

The shortloin sits between the leg and the rack and accounts for 12.1% of the carcase. Tender and versatile, short loin cuts respond best to high heat roasting and grilling. The loin chop, also known as the lamb ‘T-bone’, includes the fillet and eye of loin muscles which sit on opposite sides of the bone.

A shortloin can be roasted whole or remove the bones to stuff and roll; the external layer of fat around this cut imparts flavour and helps prevent the roast drying out. The eye of loin consists of the entire eye muscle that lies along the spine – as a minimally used muscle, it is as tender as the tenderloin and perfect for stuffing and trussing.

Chump is prepared from a Leg Chump On and is removed by a straight cut approximately 12mm from the hip joint. Accounting for 3% of the carcase, there are two chumps per animal offering tender, flavoursome and textural roasts, steaks and chops.

The Rump is prepared from the Chump by the removal of the tail/flank and the cap muscle and subcutaneous fat. Renowned for its tenderness and flavour, rump is best suited for roasting, or diced for dry heat cooking methods – it can also be sliced into steaks. Chump Chops are the equivalent of a beef rump steak left on the bone and are slightly bigger than cutlets or loin chops. These cuts are suited to grill and pan-fry cook methods and are tender with extra flavour imparted from the bone.