Photos: Denver Botanic Gardens Hosts Lamb Jam. Not Baaaaaaaaad!

For American carnivores, the meat that comes to mind first is chicken, followed by beef and then pork, according to Carlisle Technology, which provides software and equipment for meat processing. There are tasty reasons for the ranking, including cost and health reasons for chicken and the variety of ways that beef and pork can be eaten (burgers and bacon!). Lesser bites include bison and venison, as well as goat and lamb, which are considered "niche" meats.
But the Colorado-based American Lamb Board says "baa, humbug" (apologies to Charles Dickens) to those labels, and wants to change the perception of lamb to make it more of a mainstream protein. And so the organization has been touring the country and hosting "Lamb Jam" events to showcase noteworthy local eateries and provide lamb dishes for people to sample.

The Denver Botanic Gardens hosted a Lamb Jam stop on August 20 that featured a who's who of Colorado chefs from a variety of restaurants, along with their samples of creative ways to cook lamb. They included Cody Cheetham of Tavernetta, Jennifer Jasinski of Rioja, Kenny Minton from Coperta, Chase Devitt of Boychik, Blake Edmonds of Señor Bear, Reggie Dotson from Ash’Kara and Ben Hildred from Two Hands. A couple hundred attendees went from table to table to grab portions of dishes ranging from lamb ribs and sausage to kibbeh meatballs, soft tacos and crunchy arancini.

Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe in LoHi sent Tyler Kanaval and an assistant butcher to carve up an 80-pound lamb; all of the cuts were given away to the winners of a trivia contest who could name individual parts — lamb shanks and rack of lamb are the obvious names that came to most diners' minds. Using a combination of a saw and knives, Kanaval explained his work as he cut into the carcass, first cutting off the legs.
"These are nice, slow-cooking lamb shanks, and basically, I'm lopping them a little bit higher than the elbow joint. It helps me break it a little bit quicker, and you're gonna get a couple extra bites for your lamb shank," Kanaval explained. "These are the front quarters, not the rear, and they're very, very tasty, but you're gonna get a little bit less meat, a little bit more bone, and they're great for stews and soups."
Lucky audience members got to take home the lamb he prepared for them, and everyone around his demonstration learned a lot more about lamb than they probably knew before the evening.

One participant got to take home a more major award. The American Lamb Board had invited everyone to vote for their favorite bite, and declared the winner at the end of the evening: Ben Hildred and Two Hands for the Lamb Spring Roll.