Lamb bacon
I want to show up at my mother's Easter brunch with some lamb bacon. Any suggestions as to where I can get this in the Seattle area? I'm looking to buy it and cook it myself, not order it at a restaurant.
If not bacon, then what about lamb saddle or lamb belly? A second-best effort would be to prepare Mark Bittman's recipe: http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/... I know that a vendor at the U District market will sell me lamb saddle for something like $24/pound (I wish I were making that up), but I'm not going to pay yuppie prices for bacon-grade meat.
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lavaca
Apr 1, 2010 06:55 PM
Results:
The Swinery re-opened today and is stocking lamb bacon for $14/pound. I got half a pound of that and half a pound of pork bacon. When I got home, I did a quick taste-test. The verdict: bacon gets most of its flavor from the curing and smoking, so the lamb bacon does not taste all that different from the pork bacon. It does have a lamb-y finish, though, and is certainly worth trying if you want an excuse to eat lamb for breakfast. The strips are smaller than the pork bacon, which seems like it would be a good thing for a burger.
The woman at the counter claims that the lamb bacon tends to sell out quickly, but maybe Gabe has finally figured out this whole customer demand stuff.
Someone should consider making this stuff out of a kosher kitchen and peddling it to Jews. A place called The Swinery doesn't exactly fit that bill.
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voodoobec
Mar 29, 2010 09:04 PM
Cafe Revo in West Seattle uses lamb bacon in one of their menu items (Ravioli Carbonara). It's a stretch, but you could contact them and see if they would share their supplier's name or maybe even their supply with you!
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Dba Cafe Revo
2940 SW Avalon Way, Seattle, WA 98126 -
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i may be mistaken but wouldn't a "saddle" of lamb be both racks and both loins presented as one glorious (and costly) roast several steps above 'bacon grade'? if lamb "belly" is the same cut as that from pork, it would be very small, very thin and barely worth cutting - and this before the curing and smoking. lamb breast is generally available at fero's meats in pike place market where don & joe's has lamb cheeks and lamb tongues in their case regularly.
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re: howard 1st
Salumi cures a Lamb Prosciutto. Probably because a lamb's haunch is barely big enough to butcher, I've not seen a lamb Culatello or other exotics, but the prosciutto will give you a sense of the flavor (which is not to everybody's taste).
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Salumi
309 3rd Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104 -
re: howard 1st
lavaca
Mar 27, 2010 10:59 PM
Da Pino makes lamb prosciutto as well, but it doesn't give off the same breakfast vibe as bacon. I'll ask around at various butchers, I guess. Mark Bittman seems downright giddy about the more obscure cuts of lamb, but none of them is readily available at the average Seattle grocer.
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paulj
Mar 27, 2010 09:19 AM
Part of the problem with finding the fresh cut that you want is that most lamb in groceries comes precut from Australia, with boned legs being the most common. There may be threads on finding locally raised lambs. You could also check some 'ethnic' markets. One Indian owned market in Lynnwood appears to do some of its own lamb and goat butchery, since I've seen things like lamb tongue. But the least expensive lamb/goat meat remains the cubes cut from a frozen shoulder with a band saw, meat that is great for stews, but not for your purpose.
Breast might be an easier cut to find. Depending on how it is trimmed it may still have a substantial fatty layer on the outside.
I don't like lamb fat very much. Its melting point is too high, so it does not have the melt in your mouth succulence of pork.
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paulj
Mar 26, 2010 02:01 PM
I've bought cured lamb (not necessarily belly) from a Scandinavian shop on 85th (north of Ballard) It wasn't recent, so can't say anything about the price.
Scandinavian Specialties lists a couple of cured lamb items:
http://www.scanspecialties.com/produc...
