While you might associate steak with beef, lamb steaks are a lesser known yet delicious cut that you should be cooking for dinner. The lamb steak is a cut taken from the leg of the lamb and can be bone-in or boneless. Just as different cuts of steak benefit from different cooking techniques, different cuts of lamb also demand different cooking methods. We interviewed Douglas Keane, chef and partner at Cyrus, for his expertise on the best way to cook a lamb steak and why different cuts can’t all be treated the same.
Chef Keane told us that the tenderness of the cut in question dictates how you should cook it. According to Keane, “The tenderness of each cut depends on the specific muscle used in the animal. So if its from the loin or the belly, it would not be a highly used muscle and therefore would be pretty tender.” Lamb chops come from the loin or ribs, so they’re especially tender. In contrast, lamb steaks are cut from the leg, and Keane says, “The meat will be less tender naturally and needs to be treated differently.” Whereas the best way to cook a lamb chop is, according to chef Keane, a “hard sear or grill and a gentle oven time to medium rare — medium at the highest,” a tough, lean lamb steak requires the opposite approach. You’ll need to tenderize lamb steaks before cooking them.
Chef Keane’s tips for cooking lamb steak
Chef Keane thinks that the best way to cook lamb steaks or a cut from the heavily used leg and shoulder starts with a long marinade. He told us to start with “a thin cut of protein marinated for a day or so in salt and spices but also some sort of acid — wine, verjus, citrus juices, etc., to help denature the protein as much as possible.” Salt and acid are both meat tenderizers, and while you can dry marinate the lamb steaks, an overnight soak in acid will not only tenderize the meat but also impart complementary flavors of its own. You could use a combination of red wine, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, and olive oil. For a Greek marinade, you can combine lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, thyme, and garlic.
After you’ve given the lamb steaks an overnight marinade, they’re primed for cooking. Keane says, “Cook it on relatively high heat for a short period of time but, after the meat is rested, slice it thin and across the grain to serve.” You could even use some of the marinade to baste the lamb as it cooks for further flavor infusion. Just be sure to bring marinade that’s touched the raw steaks to a boil to kill any bacteria before basting the lamb as it cooks. Cutting against the grain and resting are both post-cooking techniques to ensure the tenderest results.
