Step 1: Start with a 'square shoulder'. The piece of meat in the upper right of the image is a small roast. This small boned-out rolled roast represents the piece that we will eventually produce. Note that you can produce roasts of any size that suits your planned cooking technique and intended presentation; also remember that there are two shoulders on any full carcase. In this edition, I'm producing a one-person sized roast from one side of the shoulder(s).
This month, STEVE BAIN tackles the square shoulder to score goals with a shoulder roast.
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The square shoulder is a butcher's cut that is made when breaking down a forequarter into manageable-sized pieces.
These more manageable pieces generally make storage and transportation easier.
Made with a bandsaw, the square shoulder sits between the neck and the ribs (rib rack).
At a later stage, using a knife, most butchers will trim this square cut into smaller pieces.
On lamb or goat-sized critters, the square shoulder can be processed into shoulder roasts.
Two shoulder roast options include the bone-in or boned (bone removed).
The boned (aka bone out) shoulder roast is most commonly either ‘butterflied’ out flat, or rolled.
Both a flat roast and a rolled roast, each in their own way, provide the cook with a piece of meat of roughly even thickness.
Even thickness equals even cooking time for the entire piece of meat.
In this example, our cook has asked the butcher for a rolled shoulder roast.
Step 2: An end-view of the square shoulder; this view is looking upwards along the front leg, from where the front kneecap (think 'elbow') would have been, looking towards the shoulder.
Step 3: In quadrupeds (aka tetrapod), the scapula/shoulder blade and the ribs are not attached by a 'proper' joint. Thus, you can easily separate the shoulder blade from the ribs with just a knife. Start by cutting between the leg bones and the ribs.
Step 4: Continue cutting the shoulder away from the rib area. Shown from above.
Step 5: An alternative end-on view for the cut that separates the shoulder from the first few ribs.
Step 6: Continue cutting the shoulder away from the rib area. This angle now shows the cut from the side view.
Step 7: The bone-in shoulder roast. At this point you can roast this whole, if you like. We will continue our knife work to produce a rolled roast.
Step 8: To produce a rolled roast, start with the bone-in shoulder roast. The scapula, and the remaining part of the front leg bones, can now be removed. Commence with a cut along one side of the ridge/keel of the scapula. You can feel for the location of this ridge before you initiate your knife cut.
Step 9: Once you have cut into the full depth of the ridge, now turn your knife blade 'flat' in order to run its edge along the top of the flat surface of the outer side/upper side of the scapula. Continue doing this in order to 'flay'/fillet the meat away from the scapula. I've included some mince in the upper right of the image to highlight that at this point it is a good idea to collect all/any of the small bits of trim into your pile of meat for mincing.
Step 10: Now cut downwards on the other side of the scapula, and also flay the meat from this side of the bone.
Step 11: Continue cutting and trimming until the scapula is fully exposed. For illustrative purposes, I have included a piece of forequarter chop as well as a small piece of 'cross-cut' bone from a forequarter chop. The forequarter chop is made by cutting across the full bone-in shoulder roast with a bandsaw; the bandsaw cuts across the scapula, thus cutting the shoulder blade into little pieces with a unique shape. You can see where the bone sits in the forequarter chop; and hopefully also see the orientation of the forequarter chop in relation to the shoulder roast.
Step 12: Now make an incision along what remains of the leg bone.
Step 13: Continue to cut around the leg bone until the leg bone is exposed. Then keep working the knife point and edge around the bone until the bone is free of the meat. This will allow the bone(s) to be removed. The result of removing the bones will be a boned-out roast.
Step 14: Another view of the scapula (this is also known as the shoulder blade). Note the ridge of bone that runs up the outside centre of the blade's flat area.
Step 15: There is meat attached to the underside of the scapula. Lift the bone and 'scrape' the knife along the underside of the scapula in order to remove the bone from the shoulder meat.
Step 16: Continue to cut under the scapula.
Step 17: The bones removed from the roast.
Step 18: The piece of meat from the upper right in the photo has now been cut away from the main roast. This piece of meat in the upper right of the image is the piece that we'll 'unroll'/butterfly and then roll back up into a rolled roast.
Step 19: Because the roast is going to be rolled up, I like to unroll the roast out flat and trim a lot of the fat from the roast (the fat is on the left in this photo).
Step 20: The rolled roast. Rolled and tucked together to make it as even thickness as you can. The roast can be cooked like this, or it can be stuffed.
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