How to butterfly a leg of lamb for the barbecue

You will need:

• A sharp boning knife
• A leg of lamb
• A non-slip chopping board

1. Use a sharp boning knife (if you don’t have a boning knife, a small stiff paring knife will do). Put the lamb leg on a non-slip chopping board, then run your knife down both sides of the shin bone to release the flesh.

2. In careful strokes, run your knife down the white line of fat that runs along the bone down to the thigh bone (you can feel the bone if you push your fingers into the cut). Cut through the flesh to reveal the bone.

3. Once the bone is exposed, work your knife all around the bone towards the hip joint, keeping the blade as close as you can to the bone to prevent wastage. Once the thigh has been released completely, pull up the bone and cut around the knee joint and shin bone to release the whole bone.

4. Lay out the boned leg in front of you, then cut out and discard any cartilage and big lumps of fat. To make sure the lamb cooks evenly, it needs to be more or less the same thickness all over. With your knife lying flat on the meat, slice horizontally into the thickest part of the lamb until you get about two-thirds through. Open it up like a book and the leg should be almost equal thickness all over.

 

Watch our video on how to bone and butterfly a leg of lamb, too…