How Costco Lamb Rack Takes The Effort Out Of Elegance

Costco is an excellent place to go for bargains, bulk buys, and hidden gems. The massive warehouse sells everything from beauty products to fresh produce, scratch-made baked goods, and more. A trip there often requires half your day to cover the square footage and a stop at all the sample carts. Whatever you need, you can buy in bulk at Costco, from toilet paper to prosciutto, and it has quite a few items for which it's known. First, it offers a famously good deal on meat and seafood, specifically king crab legs, per Costco.

While it may not be your everyday grocery store when you need a couple of bananas and a loaf of bread, it can be a great spot to shop for a fancy dinner party. Costco offers everyday items and specialty goods alike. If your dinner menu includes a tender rack of lamb, skip the local grocery store, head right to the Costco meat section for a great deal, and take some of the work out of it.

While there are many ways to prepare a rack of lamb, a classic and delicious preparation involves shaving down a bit of meat and fat so the bones stick out on the end, like a lollipop. This style is called frenched, and it gives the meat a very elegant appearance, not to mention you can technically eat it as finger food too. When you buy a rack of lamb at most grocery stores or butcher shops, it doesn't come prepared this way unless you specifically ask the butcher. You can certainly do it yourself, but it takes a bit of elbow grease and can be messy.

Costco just so happens to offer the lamb already frenched, perhaps not even knowing what a favor they're doing for the consumer, according to Insider. Not only do you only have to worry about cutting and fussing with raw lamb, but the added benefit is that you don't have to pay for the weight of the meat and fat that a butcher would be cutting off. Once you have your meat cut in this fashion, it's super easy to season however you like and grill or roast to perfection. According to The Kitchen Herbs, herbaceous blends like rosemary and thyme or herbs de Provence go wonderfully with this slightly gamy meat.

With your lamb rack in hand, you may wonder how best to tackle the seasoning and cooking of such a refined, elegant cut of meat. Lamb isn't a technically fussy cut of meat that requires a ton of work to prevent drying like turkey or duck. You can take the whole rack, give it a quick sear in a hot cast iron pan for a bit of a crisp, then roast it in the oven at 450˚ F until it's juicy on the inside, about 10 minutes (via Saveur). Once your meat is cooked, you can slice little individual chops from it and serve them.

The other thing you can do would be to pre-slice the tiny lamb chops and grill (or roast) them individually. How you'd like to serve and enjoy them is up to you. Whatever you choose, the dish will look and taste fancy; only you need to know how simple it can be to whip up an extravagant lamb dinner. Some favorites for sides? How about garlicky mashed potatoes or mushroom risotto?