The Back End

After the feet and tail of the lamb are removed (see “The Extremities”), before the pelvic bone is removed from the leg, it may then be sold as a whole long leg. The whole leg can be divided into two cuts, the sirloin, or butt end, and the shank end. If the sirloin end is removed from the leg, the remaining cut is called a short leg. The sirloin end has a higher portion of meat to bone, but the shank end is leaner and easier to carve.