I'm going to a Burns Supper (Robert Burns) next weekend and my contribution is Scotch Broth (my favourite soup). My local agricultural college being lambless, I bought packets of boney "Lamb Stew" from a Middle Eastern grocery store. I've been cleaning the meat for hours and it occurs to me that some parts will dissolve during long cooking. But I don't know which parts though.
Do I need to cut away (i.e. what happens to):
- skin? (does lamb stew meat ever come with skin attached?)
- opaque white connective tissue (~1 mm)
- nearly transparent, thin silvery layer (is this fascia?)
- fat
- cartilage
- white things that look like veins but there's no blood in them
- other connective tissue
I, personally, don't like messy, gristly stew.
I am taking most of the meat from the bones, then broiling the bones for about 30 minutes at 425F, then putting the bones into the stock pot water. I'll add the (somewhat cleaned) lamb meat later.
Also, how do these requirements for cleaning the meat change if I'm sous viding the meat at 133F?
P.S. Large fat deposits are removed because we feed them to the birds.
