Old school vs new school on lamb breakdown - what's the better method?

I was at a shop in Portland last week and overheard two butchers arguing about lamb breakdown. One guy swears by breaking the whole carcass into primals before trimming, the other says he keeps the saddle intact until the last minute for better yield. I took away that both methods have their fans, but I'm leaning toward the primal-first approach for speed. Which way do you guys break down a lamb for retail cuts?

2 comments

2 Comments

brooke_nguyen651mo ago

That primal-first approach sounds good for speed but I once watched a guy try to break a lamb that way and he ended up with a pile of scraps because he cut too deep into the loin. He was bragging about how fast he was and then the whole saddle fell apart. I learned the hard way that keeping the saddle intact is safer for yield, especially if you're doing French racks later. The extra time it takes feels worth it when you see how clean the cuts come out. Have you ever messed up a rack trying to speed through?

lindareed1mo ago

You ever notice how the whole world's like that now? Everyone's in such a damn hurry to get things done fast that they forget the whole point is to do it right. I see it everywhere, not just in kitchens or butcher shops. People rush through their work, rush through conversations, rush through life, and then wonder why everything falls apart on them. That guy with the lamb, he probably figured speed made him look good, but all it did was cost him a perfectly good rack and probably a bunch of time and money he couldn't get back. The thing is, taking a few extra minutes to do something clean and careful usually saves you from having to do it twice, or worse, starting over from scratch. It's like that old saying about measure twice cut once, except nobody seems to remember it anymore.