The 100th Post! Chopping up a baby lamb

Our "course materials" fresh from the farm

Can we get a syndication deal now?

As a slight change of pace and in preparation for Passover, Gordon and I signed up for a lamb butchering class taught by the amazing Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats. In true heathen style I came across Ryan in a New York Times article on fried pig skin. In addition to the delicious sausages he sells at the Ferry Building Farmers Market, Ryan is known for his amazing chicharrones, that he thoughtfully shared with us at the end of class (along with some grilled kidneys and other treats). The class was held in San Francisco non-profit, incubator kitchens of La Cocina.

Now, lamb is rarely served for Passover these days, but it is represented on every Seder plate where a bone from a lamb shank reminds us of the Paschal sacrifice made in the Temple (when we had one) and the blood Jews smeared on their doors to ward off the angel of death. Of the many things there are to learn from reading the laws of sacrifice in the Torah is this; larger animals were prepared for sacrifice by the families who brought them. Then the leftovers were consumed by them and the priests (for a scandal involving this practice see I Samuel 2:13). Here were people who knew where their food came from (and it wasn’t from Whole Foods). So this year, don’t just pay lip service to that bone on the plate, embrace your heritage and at least buy a lamb shank to cook and serve for an appetizer (we might even get a recipe for you).

As is typical for anytime Gordon and I go anywhere, we ran into a former student co-worker… not just any former student but, Evan, the original kitchen manager (later replaced by Dafna), close friend of the rest of the heathens and the guy we’ve been begging to do a guest post about the whole lamb he spit-roasted a few months back. He was volunteering in the kitchen for SF Street Food and perhaps after buying him a couple of beers this week, we can finally get him writing.

For a wider array of photos, check out Ryan’s blog post on baby lamb.