Lamb neck is a tough, flavorful cut of meat that varies in location depending on the country of the butcher. In the UK, it refers to a part of the back, while in the US, it includes the neck and shoulder. Different parts of the neck can be referred to as “neck end”, “scrag end”, or “middle neck”.
Lamb neck is a particular part of lamb, but the specific area varies according to the country of the butcher. Commonly the term is used in Britain to describe an area of the animal which is part of the back and behind what non-butchers would call the neck. This cut of meat contains spinal bone and connective tissue, but a butcher can remove the bone for customers. Typically tough and strongly flavored, lamb neck is suitable for braising or slow cooking.
British butchers call the part of the animal between the back and head the lamb’s fine scrag. The part of the animal they refer to as the “lamb’s neck” is further along the back at the top of the shoulders. In fact, three different parts of the lamb can be referred to as the “neck”. These are medium neck, best neck end and, confusingly, scrag end can also go by the name “neck end”.
The midneck is a portion of the animal behind the edge of the patch that reaches about one third of the way down the back of the animal. Both the scrag end and the middle neck contain many spinal bones and a high percentage of connective tissue and fat. While they can be cooked on the bone, you can take the bone out and roll the remaining meat into an oven roasting joint. The fatty, connective tissue means that the cut is best cooked slowly, and a cook may chop the meat into chunks or grind it up to speed up the cooking process.
Behind the middle neck is the best end of the neck. This is a portion of the lamb from the first rib to the eighth rib of the animal. Less tough than the middle neck or neck end, a butcher can portion it into lamb cutlets or keep it whole as a roast. The cut of lamb immediately behind the best end of the neck is the loin. Typically, due to the leanness of the meat at its best, this cut is more expensive than the other two cuts that are part of the neck of lamb.
In the United States, for example, this British terminology is not used. UK terminology refers to the area of the lamb below the scrag end and midneck as the shoulder, while the US format uses the “shoulder” to refer to the part of the lamb where the forelegs come out from the body up to the back and including the neck. Shoulder roast and lamb shoulder neck slices are examples of the specialized cuts of this area. Terminology may differ from country to country, but mainly, when a butcher refers to the neck of lamb, he means a part of the animal which includes the spinal bones of the first half of the animal.
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