Lamb Culinary Terms

Although lamb cookery may be changing with the times, many culinary and menu terms for lamb remain the same in cookbooks and on menus around the world. Here are some you may encounter while cooking.

Key Culinary Terms

Agneau: (French) lamb. Agneau de lait: milk-fed lamb. Agneau pascal: spring lamb. Agneau de pre-sale: lamb from salt meadows, particularly on French Atlantic coast.
Arni souvlakia: Greek, skewered lamb, often flavoured with garlic, marjoram, onion and bay leaves.
Baron d'agneau: a French lamb cut - top end of lamb for roasting.
Baron of lamb: double striploin, rump and leg area of a full carcass. Also known as saddle of lamb.
Best end (of neck): rack of lamb, 6 or 7 ribs of lamb, together, from between middle neck and loin.
Canon of lamb: boneless filled and rolled loin of lamb.
Carre: a French cut of lamb - rack or best end.
Chump: rump.
Cotelette: cutlet. Cotelettes premier are the 4 cutlets from nearest the mid-loin on a lamb rack.
Epaule: (French) shoulder, lamb roasting joint. Epaule d'agneau is a half shoulder, boned, rolled and tied.
Gigot: top end of hind leg of lamb or mutton.
Gigot d'agneau: shank end of leg for roasting.
Girella: Australian term for eye of lamb silverside.
Keema: Indian, minced meat, raw or cooked. Keema pilau: minced lamb stew with rice.
Kofta: Indian-style meat balls.
Korma: Indian stew or rich, spicy simmered meat dish, often including garlic, onion, fresh ginger, and yoghurt.
Paillard of lamb: Australian trim lamb cut. Slices of meat from topside, thick flank (knuckle, round) silverside, leg or loin.
Valentine of lamb: a butterflied cut from a well-trimmed boneless lamb loin.