Cuts of Lamb

The cuts of lamb come from five primal sections: the shoulder, the rack (rib), the loin, the leg, and the shank and breast. The rule for buying them is simple. The rack and loin barely work on the animal, so their roasts and chops are tender and want quick, hot cooking to medium-rare. The shoulder, shank, neck and breast do the heavy lifting, so they are full of connective tissue and need a slow braise or a long roast to turn soft. The leg sits in between: lean, fairly tender and the classic roast.

Below: every cut you are likely to see at an American meat counter, where it comes from and how to cook it, plus how to read the label and the grade, how lamb differs from hogget and mutton, how much to buy, and the safe temperatures. For the cooking itself, the site's herb-crusted rack of lamb and the Gordon Ramsay lamb sauce take it from here, and more in recipes.

The Primal Cuts of Lamb

A lamb carcass is split into five primal cuts, according to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: shoulder, rack, shank/breast, loin and leg. Every retail cut of lamb comes from one of those five, and the FSIS lamb fact sheet recommends that supermarket packages name both the primal and the product, such as "shoulder roast" or "loin chop," which is the fastest way to know what you are holding. The American Lamb Board splits it further into nine (leg, loin, rack, shoulder, breast, shank, neck, flank and foreshank), and a Canadian butchery textbook from BCcampus groups the same meat into four larger primals. The names change; the anatomy doesn't.

Where the cut sits on the animal predicts how it eats. The rack and loin run along the back behind the shoulder, muscles that hold posture rather than move the animal, so they stay fine-grained and tender. The shoulder and the shanks carry the lamb's weight all day, and that work builds collagen, the connective tissue that makes a cut chewy when it is cooked fast and silky when it is cooked slowly. The leg is a working muscle too, but a young lamb's leg is tender enough to roast, which is why it is the Easter centerpiece.

Cuts of Lamb Chart: Where Each Cut Comes From and How to Cook It

This chart lists the cuts of lamb sold in most American stores, the primal each comes from, whether it is a fast or slow cut, the best way to cook it and the temperature to cook it to. Fast cuts are judged by an instant-read thermometer; slow cuts are done when a fork slides in with no resistance, which happens well past any safe minimum.

Cut	Primal	Fast or slow	Best way to cook it	Cook it to
Rack of lamb (frenched rack, crown roast)	Rack (rib)	Fast: tender	Sear, then roast hot; or grill	Pull at 130 to 135°F for rosy medium-rare; USDA minimum 145°F + 3-min rest
Rib chops (lamb lollipops)	Rack (rib)	Fast: the most tender chop	Pan-sear, grill or broil, about 7 to 11 minutes total for 1 to 1 1/2 in chops	Medium-rare; USDA 145°F + 3-min rest
Loin chops (T-bone chops)	Loin	Fast: tender and lean	Grill, broil or pan-sear	Medium-rare; USDA 145°F + 3-min rest
Bone-in leg of lamb	Leg	Fast-ish: lean, fairly tender	Roast at 325°F, about 20 to 25 min per lb for a 5 to 7 lb leg	145°F + 3-min rest; carve across the grain
Boneless leg (BRT), butterflied leg	Leg	Fast-ish: the leanest cut	Roast tied, butterfly and grill, or cube for kebabs	145°F + 3-min rest
Sirloin chops, leg steaks	Leg (top end)	Fast	Grill or broil	145°F + 3-min rest
Shoulder chops (blade, arm)	Shoulder	Either: cheaper, chewier	Grill to medium, or braise	145°F if grilled; fork-tender if braised
Shoulder roast (bone-in or boneless)	Shoulder	Slow: fattier, forgiving	Slow-roast or braise for hours	Fork-tender (well above 160°F)
Shanks (fore and hind)	Shank	Slow: the most collagen	Sear, then braise at 325°F for 1 1/2 hours or more	Fork-tender, meat sliding off the bone
Breast, riblets, Denver ribs	Breast	Slow: fatty	Braise or slow-roast, then crisp	Fork-tender
Neck, stew meat	Neck, shoulder, leg	Slow	Stew or braise in 1 to 1 1/2 in pieces	Fork-tender
Ground lamb	Trimmings from any primal	Fast	Burgers, meatballs, shepherd's pie	160°F, no exceptions

The split in that chart is the whole buying decision: pick a fast cut when dinner is in 30 minutes and you want it pink, and a slow cut when you have an afternoon and want it falling apart. The roast times and the braise time come from the FSIS cooking chart; they are a planning guide, and the thermometer or the fork decides.

Rack of Lamb and Rib Chops

Rack of lamb is the rib section, the most tender and most expensive cut of lamb, and rib chops are that rack cut between the bones. FSIS describes the rack as nine full ribs, split along the backbone into two rib roasts; an American rack trimmed for sale usually has eight chops and weighs about 2 pounds, according to the American Lamb Board. A "frenched" rack has the meat and fat scraped off the top few inches of bone, which is the white-boned look in the photo, and two frenched racks tied in a circle make a crown roast.

At the counter, look for a fat cap of even thickness over the eye of meat and a fine grain in the cut ends. Ask the butcher to remove the chine (the backbone) if it is still on, or you will not be able to slice between the ribs. Cook it fast and stop at medium-rare: the meat proteins tighten between 122 and 140°F, and around 136°F the collagen sheath around the fibers contracts and wrings out juice, so a rack taken to well-done eats dry no matter how good it was raw. The site's herb-crusted rack of lamb pulls it at 130 to 135°F and rests it; rib chops cut from the same rack need only 7 to 11 minutes on the grill or under the broiler for a 1 to 1 1/2 inch chop, by the FSIS chart.

Lamb Loin Chops

Lamb loin chops are the small T-bone steaks of the lamb: a bone shaped like a T, the round loin eye on one side and a little piece of tenderloin on the other. They are as tender as rib chops, leaner, and among the easiest lamb cuts to find in a supermarket case. The American Lamb Board puts a loin chop at a 3 to 4 ounce serving, so plan on two per person.

Buy them at least 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick; a thin loin chop is overcooked in the time it takes to brown. Pat them dry and get the pan hot before they go in, because browning, the Maillard reaction, starts at about 284°F and a wet surface can't climb past 212°F until the water steams off. Stand the chops on their fat edge for a minute to render it, then sear the flat sides. The crust is for flavor; searing doesn't seal in juices, and resting does more for them, a steak cut after 2 minutes loses about three times the juice of one rested 10.

Leg of Lamb: Bone-In, Boneless and Butterflied

Leg of lamb is the best cut of lamb for roasting a crowd and the leanest cut of lamb you can buy. It comes bone-in or boneless; the boneless version is sold rolled and tied or netted (often labeled BRT, boned, rolled and tied), and the American Lamb Board names it the leanest lamb cut, with a whole boneless American leg typically weighing 7 to 8 pounds. Half legs are common too: the shank end is easier to carve, and the sirloin (butt) end is meatier per pound.

Bone-in looks better on the table; boneless cooks more evenly and carves in seconds. For a bone-in leg, ask the butcher to take out the aitch (hip) bone, which makes carving far easier. A boneless leg can also be opened flat (butterflied) and grilled, cut into leg steaks, or cubed for kebabs. Whichever you buy, carve it across the grain: cutting across the muscle fibers takes about a tenth of the biting force of slicing along them, which matters more on a leg than on a rack because the grain runs in several directions through its muscles.

Lamb Shoulder, Shanks and Other Slow Cuts

Lamb shoulder, shanks, neck and breast are the slow cuts of lamb: cheaper, more flavorful and tough until they are braised. Their toughness is collagen, and the fix is time in moist heat. Collagen begins to break down into gelatin at about 154°F, but it takes hours, not minutes, which is why a shank needs at least the 1 1/2 to 2 hours of braising on the FSIS chart and is better with longer. The gelatin is what makes braised lamb feel juicy and gives the sauce body; a lean leg cooked the same way just dries out, because it has little collagen to convert.

The shoulder is the most forgiving of all. It comes from the upper front of the lamb, carries more fat than the leg and costs less, and the American Lamb Board notes that the fat keeps it juicy through long cooking. Shoulder chops (rectangular blade chops with more fat, or round-boned arm chops) are the budget way into lamb chops; FSIS says blade, arm and sirloin chops cost less than rib and loin chops "but may be just as tender." Shanks are the extreme case, and the cut Gordon Ramsay holds up in his MasterClass cooking course as proof that cheap cuts reward patience: he sears them, roasts them, then braises them for three and a half to four hours until the meat slides down the bone. Trim off any silvery membrane on loins and racks, though; that is elastin, and unlike collagen it never softens.

How to Buy Lamb: What to Look for at the Counter

Good lamb is fine-textured and firm, red to soft pink, with white flecks of marbling, and its fat is firm, white and not too thick. That is the FSIS buying checklist, and it is the one to use. A darker, deeper red usually means an older animal and a stronger flavor. Fat that is yellowish or soft, meat that is grey or slimy, or a sour smell are reasons to pass. Check the label for the primal and the product name, and ask for a cut you can't see; most supermarket meat departments and butchers will order a rack, a whole leg or shanks.

Grading is voluntary, but it is worth looking for. The USDA grades lamb as Prime, Choice, Good and Utility, based on the conformation of the carcass and the fat streaking in the flank, and FSIS notes that most graded lamb in supermarkets is USDA Choice. FSIS advises buying graded lamb when you can, because the grade accounts for the animal's age, and ungraded lamb may be better or worse. A label reading "Spring Lamb" only means the lamb was slaughtered between March and October.

Once it is home, keep it at 40°F or below and cook or freeze it on schedule. FSIS gives 3 to 5 days in the fridge for chops, roasts and steaks, and 1 to 2 days for ground lamb and stew meat; frozen lamb stays safe indefinitely at 0°F, with roasts and chops at their best within 6 to 9 months. Don't rinse raw lamb before cooking; it only splashes bacteria around the sink.

Lamb vs Hogget vs Mutton

Lamb is a sheep under a year old, mutton is an older sheep, and hogget is the stage in between. In the US, USDA classes sheep carcasses as lamb, yearling mutton or mutton by age, judged from the bones and muscle, and FSIS notes that most lambs go to market at 6 to 8 months. Mutton is rarely sold at American retail; the BCcampus butchery text describes sheep over 12 months as having a much stronger flavor and less tender meat. Hogget is the British, Australian and New Zealand name for that young-adult sheep, roughly the second year, which US grading would call yearling mutton.

Age matters most for the leg. A Sheep Producers Australia research summary reports that leg cuts of lamb ate better than hogget legs in several studies, while the loin changed little with age. So if you buy hogget or mutton, roast or grill the loin and braise the leg and shoulder. The stronger "muttony" taste lives in the fat: a 1997 study in Meat Science (Young and colleagues) traced sheepmeat odor to branched-chain fatty acids in the fat, higher in pasture-fed and older animals. That is the practical answer to "which cut of lamb is least gamey": a lean, well-trimmed leg or loin from a young lamb.

How Much Lamb to Buy Per Person

Plan on 12 to 16 ounces of bone-in lamb per person and about 8 ounces of boneless, the ranges in Safeway's lamb roasting guide, and more for shanks, which are mostly bone. Per cut, that means two loin chops each (the American Lamb Board puts one at 3 to 4 ounces), one shank each, and an 8-chop rack of about 2 pounds for two to three people. By the same math a 5 to 7 pound bone-in leg feeds five to nine, and a whole 7 to 8 pound boneless leg feeds fourteen or more, which is why stores sell half legs. A shoulder loses more weight to rendered fat during a long cook, so buy toward the top of the range.

Lamb Doneness Temperatures

The USDA safe minimum for whole cuts of lamb (chops, racks, roasts, legs) is 145°F followed by a 3-minute rest, and ground lamb must reach 160°F, according to the FSIS safe temperature chart. The American Lamb Board calls 145°F medium-rare and tells you to pull lamb from the heat about 10°F below your target, because carryover keeps the temperature climbing as heat moves inward. Many cooks pull a rack at 130 to 135°F for a pinker medium-rare; that rosier finish sits below the USDA minimum, so cook to 145°F for anyone pregnant, very young, older or immune-compromised. Slow cuts have no target temperature: they pass 160°F early in the braise and are done only when the collagen has turned to gelatin and a fork slides in.

Color doesn't tell you any of this reliably, especially on a thick leg. An instant-read thermometer pushed into the thickest part, away from the bone, does it in two seconds.

Which Cut of Lamb Should You Buy?

For most cooks, the cuts of lamb come down to three buys. For a quick, impressive dinner, a rack or thick loin chops, seared hot and pulled pink. For a holiday roast, a leg, bone-in for the table or boneless for easy carving. For a slow Sunday, a shoulder or shanks, braised until they fall apart. Start with the slow cuts if you're new to lamb: they cost less, they forgive an extra half hour, and, as Ramsay points out, learning the cheap cuts first is how good cooks learn the meat. Then pair the result with a red wine lamb sauce made in the roasting pan, or with rosemary, the herb the site's rosemary or thyme guide picks for lamb. For the beef equivalent of this guide, see the most tender cuts of steak.

Cook the cuts: herb-crusted rack of lamb, Gordon Ramsay lamb sauce for roast leg or shoulder, the lamb burger and shepherd's pie for ground lamb. More in recipes.

Cuts of Lamb FAQs

The questions that come up most: what the primal cuts of lamb are, the most tender cut, the leanest cut, the best cut for roasting, whether leg or shoulder is better, where lamb chops are cut from, which cut is least gamey, and what temperature lamb should be cooked to.

What are the primal cuts of lamb?

USDA FSIS lists five: shoulder, rack (rib), shank/breast, loin and leg. Every retail cut comes from one of them. The rack and loin give the tender roasts and chops, the leg gives the classic roast, and the shoulder, shank and breast are the slow-cooking cuts.

What is the most tender cut of lamb?

The rack and the loin. Rib chops from the rack and T-bone loin chops are the most tender and most expensive lamb chops, according to FSIS. Cook them hot and fast and stop at medium-rare; past about 140°F they tighten and dry out.

What is the leanest cut of lamb?

The leg. The American Lamb Board names the boneless leg the leanest lamb cut, and loin chops are lean too. Shoulder, breast and ribs carry the most fat.

What is the best cut of lamb for roasting?

A leg of lamb for a crowd and a rack of lamb for two to four people. Roast a 5 to 7 pound bone-in leg at 325°F for about 20 to 25 minutes per pound to 145°F. A shoulder also roasts well, but slowly and for hours, until it is fork-tender.

Is leg or shoulder of lamb better?

It depends on how you cook it. The leg is leaner and slices neatly when roasted to medium-rare or medium. The shoulder is fattier, cheaper and more forgiving, and it is better for slow roasting or braising until it pulls apart.

Where are lamb chops cut from?

Rib chops come from the rack, loin chops (the small T-bone chops) from the loin, blade and arm chops from the shoulder, and sirloin chops from the top of the leg. Rib and loin chops are the tender, pricier ones; shoulder and sirloin chops cost less.

Which cut of lamb is least gamey?

A lean, well-trimmed leg or loin from a young lamb. The strong sheep flavor comes from branched-chain fatty acids in the fat, and it is stronger in older and pasture-fed animals, so trimming the fat and buying lamb rather than mutton keeps it mild.

What temperature should lamb be cooked to?

The USDA safe minimum is 145°F with a 3-minute rest for chops, racks and roasts, and 160°F for ground lamb. Pull lamb about 5 to 10°F early because the temperature keeps rising as it rests. Braised shoulder and shanks go much higher, until they are fork-tender.