How to French a lamb shank

Instantly make your meats more elegant.

To French a lamb shank simply means to clean the bone handle up for a more elegant finish. The additional bonus is that when it’s done well, not only does it look polished, professional and instantly improves the visual appeal of a dish (or at least make it more presentable), it also reduces small pieces of meat on the bone burning and creating acrid flavours in your dish as they cook faster.

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If you clean the bone well, your dish will look beautiful when you present it on the table. It’s by no means an essential part of cooking a lamb shank dish, but it does add a certain sophistication to the presentation. And let’s face it, there are times when we want to impress and ‘rustic’ isn’t the look we are going for. So check out the easy tutorial above to see how it’s done for yourself, and even if you ask the butcher to French your shanks for you, at least you’ll know what it’s all about next time you do.

How to French a lamb shank

What you’ll need:

• paring knife.

Ingredients:

• lamb shank

 Method:

1. Cut around the shank bone through the meat and through the skin on the back.
2. Cut downwards to remove meat from the bone.
3. Using your knife scrape along bone to remove any excess meat or sinew until bone is completely exposed.

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