301712 Thu Mar 16 11:37:10 -0800 2006 7 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1683941 i it okay to eat rack of lamb with your hands? The last time I ordered it, I could not get at it. I had to have waitperson box it up so that I could eat it at home Thu Mar 16 11:37:10 -0800 2006 0 southshoresuzy 1 1683954 If you can't separate the chops and/or get at the meat without picking it up, it's probably because the restaurant is not providing a properly sharp knife. With such an implement (I ask for one if they have not given me one), I'm always able to do a very satisfactory job. Though I have seen people using their hands to pick up the chops to munch around the bones, I prefer not to do so. Thu Mar 16 14:21:20 -0800 2006 1683941 0 RGR 2 1683959 Individual frenched racks of lamb are very popular at upscale affairs, as finger food/hors d'oeuvres, they call them "lollipops". I enjoy eating them that way myself. Thu Mar 16 15:24:53 -0800 2006 1683954 0 coll 3 1683965 Buffet practices are necessarily less formal than table practices, though I have no compunction about picking up the chop by the naked bone end to skin the meat off with my knife. I think any way of eating that isn't messy or overtly greedy (or NOISY!!) is acceptable at a table, and a rack of lamb is certainly less problematical in this regard than, say, fried chicken (uh-oh - cat's out of the bag!). Thu Mar 16 16:06:21 -0800 2006 1683959 0 Will Owen 2 1683970 In most meat-oriented cultures, people know that the best meat is around the bones. Unless you're eating at some kind of diplomatic dinner (diplomats are sticklers to etiquette and proper protocol) where international relations are at stake, I wouldn't worry much about using my hands. I pick up the shank to suck the bone marrow out. Thu Mar 16 17:50:27 -0800 2006 1683954 0 welle 1 1683968 Restaurants go to a great deal of truoble to "french " the indiviual bones on a rack of lamb for that very reason. As an apprentice cook many years ago I asked the chef why we "frenched" the chops and why we put the paper frills on the bones" ( in those days the rack was carved in the dining room by the maitre d' hotel or service captain)-- he said " so that the guests can pick them up with their fingers and not get their fingers soiled". I assume there is some historical precedent in formal etiquette that allows on to use one's fingers for certain foods ( whole artichokes, quail's legs etc.) But I could be wrong--- as I often am. Thu Mar 16 17:27:28 -0800 2006 1683941 0 Ishmael 2 1683976 "Since most Fortune 500 companies conduct job interviews over a meal, University of Cincinnati communication faculty members sat their students and alumni down for a formal five-course meal last week to learn about etiquette. About 60 people attended the meal at Vernon Manor hosted and planned by Lisa Newman, director of undergraduate studies . . . . Newman had done some homework before the evening began to prove just how important it is for young professionals to learn how to avoid a faux pas. She surveyed UC communication alumni by e-mail, asking them to share the most egregious etiquette errors they had witnessed. (snip) Another alum complained that a woman seated at a formal business dinner picked up a lamb chop in her hands to eat it. "You're allowed to pick up fried chicken, but not a lamb chop," Newman warned." Bah, humbug. I don't care. I can clean a lamb chop bone so that any dog would walk away from it. Perhaps not at a job interview, but anything short of that. Hell. That's why I order them. If I couldn't gnaw the bones I'd order something else. Thu Mar 16 19:06:47 -0800 2006 1683968 0 JoanN 1 1683997 As with the others, I say lamb is finger food. The chop is frenched for both aesthetics and for ease of manipulation. Most restaurant lamb racks should have the chine bones removed (the part of the spine where the rib bones connect) so cutting between the chops should be easy... Because I am a fairly fastideous eater, i usualy carve the ribs from the rack one at a time, use my knife to remove the eye, then pick up the bone and gnaw it like a wolverine. On the chance that your rack has a little bit too much chine to carve easily, immitate a banquet chef: using a napkin (may I suggest a coacktail napkin), pick up the rack by the bones curving towards you (so you can see the "bottom/inside of the rack) use your knife to separate the chops into singles or doubles. Fri Mar 17 09:41:14 -0800 2006 1683941 0 jdherbert