Lamb Neck Stew

As we mentioned earlier, we’ll be making an effort to teach you how cook more unusual cuts of meat. That’s because we’ve committed to only buying pastured, humane meat from now on. And that’s not cheap.

Guess what? Unusual cuts are much more affordable!

Today, we’ll share how we made braised lamb necks and turned them into an amazing nutrient dense stew full of healthy, healing grass-fed gelatin!

Remember, cooking these things may be foreign to you, but meat is meat and once it’s cooked, I defy you to tell the difference. After all, what is a neck but the head end of the spine? If you enjoy ribs or oxtail, you can eat a neck!

I tried to do this in a very traditional way by coating it in spiced “flour”, browning it, then braising it in juice and stock for many hours. I hope you enjoy it, because we did!

Picking apart the incredibly tender meat from the bones, after the stew was finished, was like going on a paleontologist adventure! We found amazingly thick and nutrient-dense bone marrow (which easily pushed right out) and the boys liked putting the bones back together like a puzzle after!

Braised Lamb Neck

Ingredients

2 C coconut flour
2 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper

2 lamb necks, whole (about 2.5lbs)
2 Tbsp lard
1 Large Onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
8 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch sections
1 C white wine or apple juice
4 C chicken stock
2 tsp salt
2 bay leaf
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees
  2. ♥ In a large bowl, combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper
  3. ♥ Coat necks in the flour-spice mixture
  4. In large Dutch oven, melt lard over medium-high heat
  5. Brown necks on all sides, about 4 minutes per side
  6. Remove necks from pot (set-aside) and add onions, garlic and carrots (add additional fat if needed)
  7. Saute aromatics for about 8 minutes until onions are soft
  8. Add wine or juice and stock, return necks to pot
  9. Increase heat and bring to a boil
  10. Add remaining ingredients and stir
  11. Cover and place in oven for 4 hours or until meat is falling off bones
  12. Once cooked, gently remove bones and add back meat and marrow to stew (meat will fall off when cooked)
  13. Serve over cauliflower puree or cauli-rice

♥ Symbol indicates steps you can do with your child! If old enough, let them stir and add things to the pot, too!

Don’t be afraid – it’s AMAZING! Even the kids couldn’t get enough.
Hope this inspires you to dethaw those necks you bought ages ago and attempt to cook them up!

 

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Matthew McCarry has written 186 post in this blog.

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  • Sufisherfit

    Yum!!!  Where did you find lamb neck?  I used to use lamb shanks but they have gotten quite pricey.  my local butcher shop is spotty on grass fed cuts of meat so I find it hard to get regular cuts of meats or unusual ones.  

    • http://PaleoParents.com Stacy & Matt

      We got these from Fields of Athenry, but I know Mount Vernon Farms has them too. Check EatWild.com for pastured lamb farms near you. Or I think Diane from BalancedBites even found an online source. I don’t think US Wellness Meats carries necks (couldn’t find them on the site) but they’ve got lots of other lamb cuts – their link is in our sidebar. 

  • Jessica Herschberg

    I really love that you are doing this series on cooking unusual cuts. Thanks for the education!

    • http://PaleoParents.com Stacy & Matt

      Happy to demystify and share some cheap goodies. We’ve got some fun ones coming up over the next month that we can’t wait to share!

  • kristyreal

    I see that you are an affiliate for US Wellness Meats so I thought you should know that they do spray the carcass of the grass fed beef with lactic acid made from GMO corn. That means you are paying premium prices for grass fed beef, but receiving meat that is contaminated with a grain. I am allergic to corn (which is how I discovered USW sprays corn on the meat) so we buy half a grass fed cow from a local farmer and pay to have it custom butchered. It actually works out MUCH cheaper than buying individual cuts from anywhere. Also, you get to request the organs and less popular cuts as well as all the fat for rendering and soup bones from the whole animal. It’s the only way I can get completely corn-free beef (thanks to the USDA).

    • http://PaleoParents.com Stacy & Matt

      Kristy, as linked in the below comments and above linked post (Mount Vernon Farms, Polyface, u-pick farms and our Farmer’s Market have all been featured on this site) – we shop our local farms, belong to a meat-up that shares whole animals and suggest people check out eatwild.com for local, pastured meat in their area. However, not everyone has access to local farms – and our personal experience with US Wellness Meats has been phenomenal.

      I can only assume that the packaging and shipping processes required for the shipment of meat is where those requirements come from. I’m sure it’s absolutely something ridiculous the USDA is requiring because USWM has the utmost care for the quality of their products. I myself am particularly sensitive to grains and find no issue with their meat, but this is new information to me so I’ll look into it.

      thanks, Stacy

      • kristyreal

        It absolutely is an issue caused by something ridiculous done by the USDA. The regulations for processing grass fed cows are the same as the stringent ones requiring an “acidified salt” for feedlot cows (because of the high levels of e.coli). I have found a couple of places that use organic apple cider vinegar in place of the lactic acid, but obviously organic ACV is much more expensive than GMO corn lactic acid. When purchasing a half or whole cow to be processed, you can sidestep the USDA and have the animal processed using only water – no corn.

        One thing to look out for when trying to avoid all grains: corn is not one of the top 8 allergens so it does not have to be listed on the label if “used only for processing or packaging purposes”. This means that cornstarch dusted cryovac packages are a real problem and the only to way to avoid them is to call the company in question and spend all morning on the phone with them. This is the sole reason most cheeses are not corn-free – the package. This is the reason baby carrots do not list corn even though they contain citric acid (the product of fermentation of GMO corn liquor by Aspergillus Niger bacteria). It’s a huge problem and just our bad luck that our country subsidizes a grain so that it is cheap enough to use in everything under the sun…………

        I have come to understand that pretty much every processed or packaged food in the store contains some form of corn and I’m OK with that. It makes sense. But why can’t they keep it out of my fresh produce, meat and dairy (yes, there’s corn in fortified milk)? Let me just say Hoorah for our local farmers and farmers markets!

        • http://PaleoParents.com Stacy & Matt

          Kristy,

          I don’t want to get into a debate because I do NOT know enough on the topic to even begin and do appreciate you bringing up the concern. However, for those reading and feeling concerned, here is a thorough response from US Wellness Meats:

          “We’ve had that question arise in the past. Here’s a blog post addressing that topic and USWM:

          http://www.cheeseslave.com/blogger-alleges-gmos-in-us-wellness-meats-grass-fed-beef/

          Basically, a rinse is required by the USDA in all federally inspected
          plants and is an approved organic procedure.  Below
          are some more details on the required rinse:

          -lactic acid is a by-product of fermentation of corn

          -once the bacteria finish their work in the fermentation vat, no DNA from the starch/sugar source remains

          -the processors harvesting our cattle harvest for several certified organic programs and use the same rinse

          -all cattle with a USDA stamp on the label have had a carcass rinse applied

          -the lactic acid solution is 2% with the remaining 98% being distilled water

          -during the course of breaking the carcass, and trimming the sub primal
          muscle, most of the outer layer is trimmed away to meet the subprimal
          fat spec of 1/4 inch

          -The rinse is derived from a yeast grown from a corn medium and NO GMO
          material, corn or gluten ends up in the rinse. We spent significant time
          researching this issue several years ago.”

          For me, knowing the neither corn nor GMO is detected, and that I myself have experienced no issues and even my local meat is likely treated the same way is very helpful information. However, this is certainly another on the long list of complaints I have with the USDA! Thanks…

  • tastyeatsathome

    Love this. I’m all about the “odd” cuts – like this, for example – you mention marrow, and my knees go weak. Braising meat like this makes for some really good eating!

    • http://PaleoParents.com Stacy & Matt

      I agree! It’s pretty tremendous!

  • Mari

    Hi guys! I was wondering if I could get away with not using the flour mixture, or at least using a much smaller amount? Not sure I want to spare 2 cups of coconut flour for that, haha. Thanks! :)

    • http://PaleoParents.com Stacy & Matt

      Yes, in fact I have before. Does not have the same browning a crust, but still delicious.

  • http://isthatfor.me/ Is That For Me

    Oh wow that looks super tasty. My friend was just asking me how to make stock as I was reading this so i said just make this and you have a super duper stock.