Whether it's the leg of lamb, ground lamb, or lamb chops; lamb can be a tasty cut of meat for the whole family. The Livestock Agent, Cole Maness and I wanted to walk you through preparing lamb while preparing an American favorite; the burger.
A few things that you need to know about lamb is that it is preferred fresh. You will need to look for cuts that have small bits of fat within the muscle which is called "marbling". Marbling provides flavor and tenderness. After making your purchase try to get it home quickly and place it in a refrigerator at 40°F or below. Proceed to cook the lamb within one to two days after purchase.
Wash your hands for a minimum of 20 seconds in order to ensure that you handle the lamb with clean hands. If you have a whole cut of lamb such as roast, leg, loin, and chops; it needs to be cooked to 145°F.
Ground lamb needs need to be cooked to an internal temperature of160°F. Most cuts of lamb will be prepared using dry cooking methods such as roasting, grilling, or broiling. Stew meat and shanks will be prepared by braising or stewing which are moist cooking methods. Please allow the meat to rest for at least 3 minutes after cooking to the proper internal temperature. In the video that we've produced, we were working with 2 lbs. of ground lamb which yielded about six to eight burger patties.
Cole and I were able to demonstrate how to cook a lamb burger with a cast-iron skillet on the stove. This is a method that you can use if you don't have a grill. Check out the
