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In lamb and in cattle, the fibula and ulna bones are vestigial (http://www.aps.uoguelph.ca/~swatland/ch2_1.htm, "In beef and lamb carcasses there is a single major bone, the tibia or shank bone...") and I find often if I cut the cooked meat across the grain to serve, I will cut straight through a needle-like bone.

If all the pieces are not then identified and removed, there is a risk of this needle getting stuck in someone's gums or lodged in a throat, to not even speak of worse things.

To my surprise I cannot find any reference to these dangerous bones in recipes or butchery information online.

Question: can anyone describe or point me to a technique to identify and remove this small bone prior to cooking? Or prior to serving?

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  • You should definitely be getting rid of that. As you said, gum lodging, throat lodging, esophagus piercing if you're really unlucky.
    – Deko Revinio
    Commented Mar 28 at 21:40
  • Yeah, tell me about it. I always poke around and look, but I never actually find it until I've sliced through it and I've found a piece in my own plate of food. I was hoping someone here had been to culinary school or butchery and could say which muscles it's between.
    – Douglas Held
    Commented Mar 29 at 23:08

1 Answer 1

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If you cook your lamb shanks correctly, the meat will easily separate from the bone. No point in trying to remove the bone, until after you cook the shanks.

Or you could try to boil the meat off of the bone?

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  • That might work. I would experiment first before serving it to someone though.
    – Deko Revinio
    Commented Mar 28 at 21:40

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