Leg of lamb?

PaulyT

PaulyT

New member
Going through my freezer... I have a leg of lamb (from a local farm) that needs smoking. ;) It's not a huge one, maybe 3-4 pounds, with bone. Any recipes and/or general advice on how to cook this - seasonings, pit/IT temps, etc.?

Thanks!

(Doing a search, I see one by CarterQ that looks great, but most others are about lamb racks...)
 
PaulyT

PaulyT

New member
Ok well I'm winging it here. :p

Putting together an herb rub... I'm not an experienced chef nor do I have a ton of seasonings etc. lying around, so I'm going with what I've got. Dried stuff plus a little fresh rosemary.

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Rubbed first thing in the am and let sit till mid-afternoon (sorry the pic's a little dark).

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On the grill @ 275 (oak/apple pellets).

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Will pull probably around 145-150 I guess, not quite sure... will depend on how it looks I guess. It's cooking now, and I'm spritzing occasionally with a red wine and soy sauce spray.

Hopefully this'll work out... we'll see! :rolleyes:
 
muebe

muebe

New member
I would pull in the 135F-140F range. Maybe do a 10 minute run on high to sear the outside a bit.

Should be real good! Pass the mint jelly ;)
 
PaulyT

PaulyT

New member
I poked around the web and decided to pull at 145 (this was before you posted, muebe). So here goes:

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Meat set aside to rest, while I bump the grill to 350 to cook some asparagus (because it seems one can't enter a competition here without something other than just a hunk of meat :D ) :

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Ready to carve!

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This was exactly what I was hoping for, my wife and I both like it on the rare side, and this was just about right for us; as far as I could tell, it was cooked all the way through, but still red and very juicy. The thinner side of the leg was done a bit more, more towards the high side of medium rare, but still not overdone. Ok this was maybe not the world's fanciest cut of meat, lots of sinew made it a bit hard to carve (plus I don't have a $200 knife ;) ), but it came out ok, here it is plated with the asparagus, the two sauces pictured above, and an Argentinian Cabernet.

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Flavor-wise this came out nicely, as good as I could've hoped for my very first attempt at anything remotely like this. The lamb was milder in flavor than some lamb I've had, not as "gamey" though interestingly it varied in intensity depending on which part of the meat you were cutting from. The herbs worked fine, mild but enough to taste, and the mix of the herbed outside with the cherry sauce really worked well. Yeah I know mint is the standard thing for lamb, but I just wanted something a bit more fruity. I was kinda hoping the cherry sauce would be even more on the sour side, but it was still very good. The raspberry jalapeno was ok, but too sweet and not enough jalapeno for my taste.

My main failing here was the wine was not the right pick; I was expecting a bit more intense meat flavor, and between the relative mildness of the lamb and the fruit of the jelly, the thick cabernet was a little much. Oh well, I'm not a professional sommelier, either. :p

Thanks for reading. (And now at least I have something to earn that $5-for-entering for today's little comp!)
 
PaulyT

PaulyT

New member
Whoops! I completely forgot to include the pic of my highly specialized "lamb dipping sauce" jars... :p

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Wing Commander

Wing Commander

New member
PaulyT said:
The herbs worked fine, mild but enough to taste, and the mix of the herbed outside with the cherry sauce really worked well. Yeah I know mint is the standard thing for lamb, but I just wanted something a bit more fruity.
Click to expand...

In Germany or even more in France the standard for lamb is actually to cook it with herbs, especially with rosemary and lots of garlic.

Looks great, Pauly!
 
S

Swineisdevine

New member
Very nicely done. I just did one yesterday also. Desert Gold for the rub, on smoke for about two hours and then bumped to 275 until IT of about 140. Turned out pretty nice.

Steve
 
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