How to Butcher Lamb Legs (or Goat)

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Cooking a whole leg of lamb or leg of goat can be intimidating, but there’s a lot more that you can do with a whole leg than roast them whole once a year for your holiday table. In this post I’ll show you how to butcher lamb legs into individual roasts.

A nice leg of goat.

The different cuts from a leg of lamb

With a sharp knife, the process is relatively easy and economical as it can turn what would be one larger cooking project that you may feed a family with, into 4, 5, or more meals, depending on how many people you’re serving, and the size of the leg.

Cutting up a leg into roasts yields a number of unique roasts for you to cook instead of one large piece of meat.

Besides a number of different, unique roasts, you also get the femur and hip bones, which are great for soup, as well as some trip and scrap for stock or stew, along with a smaller roast (the trip tip).

Soup bone, trim, and the tri-tip

Trim, soup bones, and a small tri-tip roast will be leftover after trimming.

The finished individual roasts can be frozen and used as needed (I recommend vacuum sealing them) but you don’t have to limit your culinary creativity to just roasts either. Here’s a few ideas:

Ideas for your roasts

Save the trim and bones to make lamb bone broth
Cut some into large pieces and use for stew
Cure them in a ham brine and smoke them
Season them overnight to make a simple smoked leg roast

Chef Alan Bergo, The Forager Chef

This recipe is by James Beard Award-winning Chef Alan Bergo. He’s a chef from Minnesota and author of The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora. Learn more about Chef Alan at foragerchef.com.

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How to Butcher Lamb Legs (or Goat)

A whole leg of lamb or goat can be intimidating, but they're easy to cook when cut down into smaller muscles.

Keyword lamb leg butcher

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 30

Total Time 35

Cost 30

Equipment

1 Boning knife
1 Cutting board

Instructions

Find the femur and expose it with a paring knife.
Remove the femur and hip bone.
You'll be left with three large chunks of meat.
Trim the silverskin and fat to reveal the individual muscles, feel free to use your hands as needed to help pull them apart.
After trimming you'll be left with a number or unique, smaller roasts.
You'll also have trim and scrap left over for making stock or stew.