A tale of two dry aged racks of lamb

[smokin'gal]

I've been meaning to try my hand at dry aging some racks of lamb. I picked up a couple of Australian lamb racks from Costco. I really wished they were bigger, but figured their flavor would more than make up for their small size. I placed the racks in dry age bags and made a plan to try them at 21 and 28 days, respectively:

(no prep pic of second one)


While I intended to wait for 21 and 28 days, I just couldn't. I took the first one out at 19 days:



Once I started trimming, I was pleased that the trimming loss would be minimal. The ends required more trimming, but the rack as a whole required about 1/8 inch all around. While all meat is graded, I never seen an actual grade stamped on a cut of lamb--or even seen it advertised. I make this point because once I cut off an end to the first rack, this is what I saw:



I'd give that a prime grading. What do you guys and gals think?

I completed the trimming and coated it in a rub made of finely ground herbs de provence, garlic powder, onion powder, sumac, salt, and black pepper:







I let the rack marinate in the fridge while I prepared the side: hot house tomatoes, stuffed with a filling of diced sourdough, parsley, and aged asagio cheese, with olive oil used to add moisture and fat to the mix:







I grilled the rack to a medium rare temp and dinner was served:









How do I describe the flavor of the lamb? I truly expected it to be even gamier than Australian lamb tends to be. But it wasn't the slightest bit gamey at all--very mild, with profound notes of nuttiness and hints of citrus. I could taste the diet the animal ate, and this creature ate well…dandelions, alfalfa, and lemongrass, etc. The mild lamb flavor was kind of an aftertaste. I will definitely try this again, but I may try it with American lamb due to its larger size.

For dessert, I tried my hand at some smoked panna cotta. I started by cold smoking some heavy cream and sugar with a mix of apple, cherry, sugar maple, and a touch of hickory:



Three cups of smoked heavy cream, 1 cup of evaporated milk, 1/2 cups of smoked sugar, and 2 smoked vanilla bean seeds were heated up in a pot:



One tablespoon of unflavored gelatin was softened in some of the cream and milk mixture for about 5 minutes, then this gelatin mix was added into the heavy cream. The panna cotta mixture was poured into 8 oz. ramekins and refrigerated to set:









After I removed the lamb racks from the grill, I set it up for indirect cooking and added a few chunks of sugar maple. I then tossed on a mixed berry blend consisting of cranberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries:






The smoked mixed berries were cooked down in spring water and smoked sugar, with 1 tablespoon of smoked lemon juice. This was then strained and further reduced until the sauce thickened:







The panna cotta was plated, sauced, and dessert was served:









That was a homerun right there! Boy-o-boy was that delicious. Rich, creamy, silky, and lightly smoky--topped off with that smoked mixed berry sauce. Just phenomenal.

Now, I had plans to try the second lamb rack after it had aged to 28 days, but after the first lamb rack, it just wasn't possible. The second lamb rack made it to 21 days before I simply couldn't wait any longer:







I prepared a roasted garlic, twice baked potato to toss on the grill with the rack of lamb:



I decided to cook this one to medium. Served it up with the potato and a mixed green salad, with cherry tomatoes and balsamic vinegar dressing:







There wasn't much of a difference from the first rack of lamb--which wasn't a problem at all.


For dessert, I decided to convert the 3 remaining panna cotta rounds into a smoked panna cotta gelato. I added 1.5 cups of evaporated milk, a touch more smoked cream, a few tablespoons of smoked sugar, and blended it all together:





This had refrigerated overnight and was then tossed into the gelato pro:



Served it up with the smoked mixed berry sauce:





Again. Rich, creamy, smoky deliciousness.

Good eats.
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[KulinaryKila]

This forum is so awesome.....super looking cook and the dessert it's right up my alley. Applause to you!!!

[Skidder]

Speechless pure speechless is all I can say. Very well played my man

[slackdogbbq]

Uhhhhhhhhh, WOW!
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[killswitch505]

killer.....
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[TrailerBuilder]

Gal, you never disappoint, and once again you have not with this one. Out of the park amazing. Very nice indeed
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[BBQMAN]

[BBQMAN]

Great looking meal to be sure, I don't think I've ever seen you cook anything that I didn't want a big plate of!

However, I thought dry aged meat was, well, dry aged?

And that takes a temp and humidity closely controlled environment to do correctly.
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[tacklebox]

Flipping awesome as usual Gal...keep up the stellar cooks
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[phil c]

STOP IT! your posts make me so hungy! Your cooking looks phenominal!

[GF]

Wow, that looks great.

[Toga]

Any left overs you can toss this way?

Those are 2 outstanding looking meals.
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[Virginiasmoke]

I was wondering about dry aging sealed in plastic as well.
I have four 5lb rib roasts dry aging now but I left them uncovered.

Your meals are always beautiful.
I hope whatever man is in your life knows how well he has it.

[smokin'gal]

Thanks everyone for checking out my post and for the compliments.

[Virginiasmoke]

Ah yes... I remember them being talked about now.

[Mr Tony's BBQ]

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[BBQMAN]

Nope, I missed that thread, but thanks for the link!
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"I Turned A Hobby Into A Business".
Providing "IMHO" Since 2005.