Yum. You know how I love miniature food. Don’t ask me why, but I do. Most of the time, I’d rather nibble on a bunch of different things than have one big meal. These sliders combine all the traditional seasonings that go so well with lamb—rosemary, mint, garlic—in one tiny burger that’s packed with flavor.

Freshly fried sliders, waiting for their buns

I know they’re on almost every bar menu these days, but just in case you don’t know, a slider is just a little thing. (In fact, they’re so popular, that there was a selection of slider buns in the bread aisle at my local grocery store.) Here’s a slider bun, next to a teaspoon, for comparison.

I used fresh mint from my front garden.

My front garden is basically a giant mint patch (can you say, “mint julep?”). I was super excited to see that my rose bush—the only other thing up there—finally decided to push out its first flower of the season!

This recipe has a fair amount of rosemary and mint in it—without being overpowering. For garlic lovers, by all means, toss in another clove if you like.

One green onion gives the sliders the right amount of subtle onion flavor.

Finish the sliders with a few thin slices of creamy, salty feta for a fresh tang.

Feta cheese

Lamb Sliders with Rosemary & Mint

1 lb. ground lamb
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1 tsp. fresh mint, minced
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, minced
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 green onion, minced
olive oil

slider buns (or a long loaf of crusty French bread cut into small wedges)
feta

Makes 6-8 sliders, depending on how big you make your patties

Make the lamb mixture

Grab your ground lamb.

Put it in a large bowl. Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.

Toss in the minced rosemary and mint.

Add the mashed garlic.

Toss in the chopped green onion.

With your hands, gently mix the meat to incorporate the herbs and garlic.

You’re aiming for a fairly homogeneous mixture, like this:

Form the slider patties

Gather the meat mixture into a large ball, then smoosh it down, so it looks like one giant hamburger patty.

With a large knife, cut it into 6-8 wedges, like this (this will help you keep all the sliders about the same size):

Grab one of the wedges.

Roll it into a ball.

Then smoosh it flat into a patty.

Make them as thick or thin as you like. (Remember, they’re going to shrink a little when cooked.)

Do this with the rest of the meat, until all your patties are formed.

Cook the lamb sliders

Now, you can grill these, too. Or you can fry them on the stove. Totally up to you.

Drizzle a little olive oil in a large, non-stick pan. Set it on the stove over medium-high heat for a few minutes to heat up. When the pan is hot, add the sliders. You want them to start to sizzle right away.

Keep the sliders relatively spaced out, so each browns nicely. (If they’re too close together, they’ll steam, more than brown.)

Cook for a few minutes. When they’ve developed a nice, brown crust underneath, flip them over.

Cook them on this side for another few minutes. Your final cooking time will depend on how thick your sliders are.

If you’re a food thermometer type, you’re shooting for an internal temperature of about 160 degrees.

Bon appetit!

Depending on how fatty your ground lamb is, you may want to drain your sliders for a minute or two before plating.

When you’re ready, pop each on a bun.

Top with thin slices of feta.

Serve and enjoy!

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These are like little lamb T-bone steaks. They’re on the more expensive side, but I snatch them up when I find them on sale. Our butcher has been breaking down a lot of lamb lately, so I got these for a steal.

Like the lamb rib chops I made recently, these cook quickly, which means they’re a great thing to whip up for a more-elegant-than-usual weeknight dinner.

Cook them fast over high heat. (A quick sear on each side will do.) An easy pan sauce with butter, cognac, and a handful of fresh, chopped herbs rounds out this really simple—but memorable—dish.

Fresh, chopped oregano, tarragon, and parsley

What is a lamb loin chop?

Like I said, these little guys look like miniature T-bone steaks, with a bone running across the top and down the center. They’re thick, tender, and have a slightly stronger flavor than lamb rib chops. You might find them labeled Lamb Kidney Chops.

They’re small, so you want to count on two per person if you’re serving them for dinner.

A note on timing

I cooked my lamb loin chops for maybe 3-4 minutes per side, which gave me a medium rare-ish chop. Your final cooking time will depend on how you like your meat done, as well as the thickness of your chops.

Lamb Loin Chops with Fresh Herbs & Cognac Butter Sauce

3-4 Lamb loin chops
kosher salt
1 Tbls. olive oil
2 tsp. fresh oregano, chopped
2 tsp. fresh tarragon, chopped
2 tsp. fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbls. butter
1/4 cup cognac
freshly cracked black pepper

Serves 2 for dinner or 3-4 as an appetizer.

Grab your lamb loin chops.

Season generously with kosher salt.

Put the olive oil in a non-stick pan. Heat it for a minute or two over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot (it will shimmer a little), drop the lamb loin chops into the pan.

They should start to sizzle right away. Cook them like this, undisturbed, for 3-4 minutes. If the pan starts to smoke, drop the heat a little.

After 3-4 minutes, they should have a nice brown crust on the bottom. Flip them over. Cook them for another 3-4 minutes on this side.

After they’ve cooked for 3-4 minutes on this side, drop the heat to medium. Add the cold butter to the pan.

Pour in the cognac. (Be careful…there will be a big poof of steam and the cognac will immediately start to boil dramatically.)

Drop in the chopped herbs. Grind on a little fresh black pepper.

Stir to combine everything. As you stir, the butter will finish melting. Flip the chops over once or twice to coat them in the pan sauce.

Cook for a minute or two like this.

When the meat is done to your liking, transfer the chops to a serving platter and drizzle with pan sauce. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

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Lamb rib chops—often called lollipop chops when the bone is frenched—are an oh-so-sweet appetizer that’s simple to make and impressive to present. They’re easy to eat, and much more elegant than a big, meaty rib.

The rib chops develop a handsome brown crust from being seared with rosemary and garlic—both classic flavors for lamb.

A sprinkle of fresh, minced mint at the very end gives them an extra burst of bright, fresh flavor.

So what is a lamb rib chop, anyway?

Lamb rib meat is super tender and very flavorful. Basically, a lamb rib chop is what you’d get if you cut a rack of lamb up into chops.

Because they’re so tender—and petite—they only need to cook for a few minutes on each side, making them an ideal fast-and-fabulous party food. They’re best broiled, grilled, or pan-seared.

The thing I love most about them? Lamb rib chops basically come with a built-in handle.

This is more technique than exact recipe. It’s easy to scale up or down, depending on the crowd you’re feeding. This time, I only had a few chops.

This article demonstrates how to french a lamb rib chop, then how to pan sear them. For thicker, extra-fancy chops, buy a rack of lamb and carve it into double chops (two bones per chop) yourself.

Lamb Lollipop Chops: To french or not to french

Frenching the bone like this is a *wee* bit wasteful, depending on how much meat you cut away. (There’s usually not too much meat near the end of the bone.)

Frenching is also totally optional, and depends largely on how you want to present and serve them.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipop Chops

Lamb rib chops
Kosher salt
Olive oil
Fresh rosemary, minced
Fresh garlic, mashed
Freshly cracked black pepper
Fresh mint, minced, for garnish

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: How to french a lamb rib chop

Grab your lamb rib chops. Give them a quick rinse under cold water. Pat them dry.

For my lamb lollipops, I like to leave about 2 inches of rib bone totally bare. You sometimes see these cut down so that only the large round of meat is left on the bone. I prefer to leave a little more meat on my bone. It’s less wasteful and still makes for a lovely presentation.

With a very sharp knife, cut through the fat and meat down to the bone on all sides, like this:

Next, flip the chop over, so the underside of the rib is facing up. Slice the meat away on each side, getting as close to the bone as you can.

Next, flip the rib back over. Run your knife under the meat on top of the bone, slicing it off.

At this point the bone should be fairly bare. With the edge of your knife, scrape off the remaining meat and fat.

Finally, flip the chop over again, so the bottom of the rib is facing up. There’s a thin skin clinging to the back of the bone. Scrape that off, too.

Go over the bone and scrape off any larger bits that you’ve missed. When you’re finished, your bone should look about like this:

Any little bits (like this) left clinging to the bone will pretty much cook off.

You’ll wind up with a little pile of scraps. Toss it in a baggie in the fridge and save for when you’d like to add a little lamb-y flavor to dishes.

Or, if you have a very (very, very) well behaved dog, fry those scraps up for a treat that will likely make him lose his mind.

Repeat with the rest of your ribs.

I did have one rib in my package that was missing a large piece of bone. It went into the pan with the others. It may have been missing its handle, but it was just as tasty.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: Marinate the lamb rib chops

Once you’ve frenched the lamb rib chops, it’s time to season them. Sprinkle them with kosher salt to taste.

Drizzle them with olive oil. Rub the oil on all sides.

Sprinkle with minced rosemary.

Smear each rib with garlic.

Add freshly cracked pepper to taste.

If you like, marinate the ribs like this overnight in the fridge. Otherwise, they’re ready to cook.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: Pan sear the lamb rib chops

Drizzle a little olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan. Set it on the stove over medium-high heat for a minute or two to heat up.

When the pan is nice and hot, drop in your chops.

Sear them like this for a few minutes, until they’ve developed a nice brown crust on the bottom. (The time will vary from maybe 3-6 minutes per side, depending on how rare you like your lamb.) If the pan starts to smoke, lower the heat a bit.

When they have a nice crust, flip them over.

Sear them on this side for about the same amount of time as you cooked the other side, so the chops cook evenly.

When they have a nice brown crust on the bottom, yank them out of the pan. Let them rest for maybe 5 minutes to help them stay juicy.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: How do you know when your lamb is cooked?

Good question. The truth is, lamb rib chops are little things, so they’re actually easy to overcook. If you’re a food thermometer kind of person, medium rare is 145 degrees, and medium is 160 degrees.

Otherwise, use your eyes and your sense of touch. Your chops should have a good brown crust on each side. The meat, when pressed should be firm, and shouldn’t feel at all squishy. When in doubt, cut a little nick into one and take a peek. The meat should be pink-ish and opaque, not translucent.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: Serve and enjoy!

Garnish with a little freshly chopped mint.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

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And when I saw these lamb ribs at the butcher, I couldn’t resist.

First, the meat was temptingly rosy and shot through with thin ribbons of creamy white fat. Second, I’ve never made bone-in country-style lamb ribs before and I love to try new things.

I mean, look at them.

After doing a bunch of reading, I decided to treat them like I do their pork counterpart: low and slow in the oven.

I smeared them with a modified gremolata, a garnish with minced parsley, garlic, and lemon peel that’s traditionally used on osso buco. Along with those ingredients, I included olive oil, rosemary, sage, a little oregano, and the juice from that lemon.

And all I can say is: Yum. The meat was rich but not greasy. The tang of the lemon was a good balance to the garlic and herbs, which formed a beautiful brown crust.

A note on the lamb
I bought the smallest package they had, which had four ribs in it. The recipe below is scaled for this amount. It could serve two to four as an appetizer, or one (hungry mouse) as a main course.

Herb Encrusted Lamb Ribs

1 1/2 lbs. country-style lamb ribs
7 garlic cloves, peeled
2 1/2 Tbls. sage, minced
2 1/2 Tbls. rosemary, minced
1 Tbls. oregano, minced
1 Tbls. parsley, minced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
6 Tbls. olive oil
freshly cracked black pepper
salt

Serves about 4

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Grease a medium-sized ovenproof dish and set aside.

Prepare the herb marinade
Mince the garlic and put it in a medium-sized bowl.

Add the sage, rosemary, oregano, parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil. Mix with a fork to combine all ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.

It should look about like this:

Apply the marinade
Using your hands, rub the herb marinade liberally over each lamb rib until it’s covered. Set each rib into your prepared pan.

When you’re done, your ribs should look like this:

Up close:

Roast and enjoy!
Put these in the oven at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Exact timing is going to depend on how thick your ribs are. They’re done when the juices run clearish and the meat comes away fairly easily when pulled at with a fork.

Serve immediately.

***
Copyright 2008 The Hungry Mouse™/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

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So, when I ask my friends what they have the most trouble cooking, the answer will very likely be: “Meat!” (Or, “Steak!” or “Veal!”) Sometimes it’s, “I can’t grill pork chops. They always dry out, no matter what I do.” Or, “Every time I roast a chicken, it’s burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.”

The most important thing I’ve learned over the years is to match meat to cooking technique. Try to sear a brisket then serve it, and it’s going to be tough. Give it lots of slow, long heat, and it’ll melt in your mouth.

The first thing I tell my friends is, “When you buy your meat, ask your butcher how to cook it.” Followed by, “Do a little reading.”

The good news is, there are a lot of great cookbooks about meat. They’re well organized, easy to read, and make it easy to find the info you need. For quick online info, Lobel’s of New York is encyclopedic in its information.

Here’s a quick overview of some of my all-time favorite cookbooks—along with a few that are still on my shopping list.

The Complete Meat Cookbook, by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly
This is the book that I always turn to first. (Admittedly, Aidells has already won my heart with his fantastic chicken and apple sausages.) Aidells and Kelly open up with a comprehensive primer on cooking techniques, from roasting to poaching—and everything in between. They discuss each method, which cuts of meat are best suited to it, and how to select those cuts at the market. Then, they give you a “Master Technique” for each.

The bulk of the book is divided by type of meat: beef, pork, lamb, and veal. Each section talks about how to select cuts, and includes illustrations to make identification easy. I often turn to the “Steaks at a Glance” chart, which lists out every possible type of steak (along with its various regional aliases) and how it’s best prepared. The recipes are well written and easy to follow, and show you how to put their Master Techniques to work.

The book is made up of recipes and illustrations, peppered with full-color photo pages. If you had to pick just one book on meat, I’d say this is the one to buy. It’s comprehensive, and easy to read and reference.

How to Cook Meat, by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby
And this is the second book I turn to. I love Schlesinger just a wee bit more because he’s a local guy, and heads up the East Coast Grill in Cambridge, MA—one of my favorite watering holes. If you’re in the area, go have a bite. The spicy food—and luscious cocktails—will knock your socks off.

Like The Complete Meat Cookbook, the front of this book also has a detailed description of cooking techniques. The text is longer and less chunked up, which means it takes a little more time to scan for the info you need. There’s also a good discussion about different types of meat-specific cooking equipment.

The rest of the book treats each type of meat in its own section. Each chapter opens with background information on cuts of meat and what to look for at the market. This is followed by a handful of recipes. Each recipe has a handy sidebar that tells you what cut you need to make the dish, other names for it, and what you can substitute if you can’t find what they recommend. There’s also a “Butcherspeak” blurb, which gives you insider tips on what to ask your butcher for.

Steaks, Chops, Roasts & Ribs, by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated
This book is extra close to my heart (and my stomach) because I had the honor of doing some editing and proofreading on it. The good folks at Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen are known for their relentless and thorough recipe testing, and this volume is no exception. What’s more, they explain how and what they tested, which can save you the time—and hassle—of experimenting with certain things yourself.

The book’s front matter features a meat-buying guide, complete with several detailed illustrations. Then, instead of being organized by meat, each of this book’s 16 chapters is devoted to a cooking technique (as in, “Chapter 4: I Want to Grill Chops.”) Each chapter includes a preface that describes how they arrived at their current recipes. They explain what they did that worked—and what didn’t. Each chapter is also packed with recipes and variations. For example, the section on “Braised Lamb Chops” includes four separate dishes.

The last chapter of the book, “Rubs, Sauces, Salsas, and Gravy” is packed with all sorts of yummy, spicy goodness to help you dress up what you make. (Hoisin, Honey, and Ginger Glaze, anyone?)

Pigs And Pork: 90 Recipes from Italy’s Most Celebrated Chefs, by Daniela Garavini
This book is a glorious tour of the pig as an integral part of our culture and society. Filled with folklore and lavish pictures and illustrations, it’s just one volume of Konemann’s “History, Folklore, Ancient Recipes” series.

The first part of the book takes you through the rich history of the pig throughout the ages, including a chapter on recipes from the 16th through 19th centuries. (Wondering how to cook Pork with Eels? Look no further.) The remainder of the book features recipes from 55 Italian chefs, complete with wine pairing recommendations.

Heller’s Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making, by B. Heller
First published in 1904 by Chicago’s B. Heller & Company, Heller’s Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making is basically a meat-packers manual. While not necessarily 100% relevant for the home cook, it’s a great read for anyone interested in the history and how-to of American meat packing. If you want to snag a copy, you’ll need to track it down on eBay or Old Cookbooks, or give Bonnie Slotnick a call. You can also download an electronic version of the book through the American Libraries Internet Archive.

The front of the book is devoted to proper dispatching and dressing of animals. The back portion details packing-house recipes for fresh and cooked sausages. The proportions are gigantic, but in theory, the recipes could be scaled down and monkeyed with by a determined (and adventurous) home cook. There’s a really good section on how to properly hang sausages to dry. The final pages showcase display ads for butcher’s supplies, including Freeze-Em-Pickle and Bull-Meat-Brand Flour.

(For all you zombie apocalypse conspiracy theorists out there, stick this one on the shelf right next to your US Army Survival Manual.)

Books I have my eye on
You know—and I admit that I have a problem—you can never have too many cookbooks. Here are a few I’d like to add to my collection. (My list is vastly longer, but I’ll save the rest for the inevitable Part II of this article.)

The River Cottage Meat Book, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Somehow, I have a feeling that anyone who runs a 60-acre animal farm can teach me a thing or two about how to cook meat. Originally published in the United Kingdom, this version has been retooled slightly for an American audience.

The Meat Buyer’s Guide, by the North American Meat Processors Association
I have a thing for manuals and guide-like books. The more it looks like a textbook, the more likely I am to be (inexplicably) drawn to it. This book is a food-service standard for buying beef, lamb, veal, pork, and poultry. While it’s not a recipe book, I’d be interested in getting an inside perspective on the modern meat business.

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing, by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn
I’ve haven’t made my own sausages. Yet. Growing up, I would listen to my father’s Italian barber talk about how his attic was hung thickly with all sorts of salty, cured meats in various stages of drying perfection. I also love a good culinary challenge—which is exactly what the several-days-long process of making a salami presents. Sign me up.

***
Copyright 2008 The Hungry Mouse™/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

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