How to cook a lamb rack

Serving lamb rack will always be sure to impress. Not only is it a great looking cut, but it is also so tender and loaded with flavour. Perfect for entertaining, simple to make, visually impressive, and absolutely delicious.

The cut

A full lamb rack has 6 or 8 ribs, well-trimmed, and may be cut into three or four ribs. The lamb rack is the most tender, lean meat when trimmed of exterior fat needing only a brief oven roast, best served medium-rare. Traditional lamb rack has an exterior fat cover, whilst modern rack has all the fat cover removed. A Frenched rack has rib bones trimmed and cleaned of meat down close to the meaty eye of the loin.

How to cook

Best cooking methods – BBQ, Roast

Trim any fat from the lamb rack and carefully remove the silverskin with a sharp knife. Cutting off the silver skin (pearly white layer) makes the meat more tender to eat and prevents it puckering up from cooking. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan over a very high heat. Sear the lamb racks for a couple of minutes until browned all over. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool. Because of the short roasting time the meat won’t brown in the oven, so it needs to be done first in a pan.

Roast the lamb rack in a preheated oven for 13-15 minutes, remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes before slicing into 2-bone pieces. Cooking and resting the rack whole before cutting results in a more succulent meat compared to cooking the cutlets individually.

If cooking your lamb rack on the barbecue, marinate your cutlets for 20-30 minutes. Preheat a barbecue or grill pan to moderately hot. Cook cutlets for 2-3 minutes each side, or until just pink in the centre. Remove and allow cutlets to rest in a warm place for 5-10 minutes before serving.