Leg of Lamb

Thanks Pag, I have one sitting in my freezer, but not for long.
Jay

Excellent. This is on my short list for sure now. Was smoke level and wood type where you wanted?

Yes. I think lamb lends itself to a light smoke flavoring. Last time I used 6-7 oz of hickory and felt the smoke too strong for the lamb. So I cut the hickory to 3-4 oz and added no more during the 3.5 hr. smoke. Alder, Pecan or a lighter wood would probably work well also.

If you use the olive oil and Greek seasonings, add some lemon juice.

When I smoke lamb I just throw a few sprigs of rosemary, a few cloves of garlic, and a hunk of charcoal in to the fire box. I find that there is enough smoke taste from the well seasoned smoker to give the proper amount of smoke taste to the lamb.

I make a leg of lamb more or less according to the Alton Brown recipe "Silence of the Leg of Lamb". The recipe is available on the Food Network page:

< http://www.foodnetwork.com/rec...mb-recipe/index.html >

I smoke it with a mild wood and toss a couple of sprigs of rosemary in the woodbox. Ignore his directions for grilling.

The recipe uses the upper portion of the leg, usually called the sirloin. You can get a whole leg and bone it yourself, or have the butcher do it, or buy a boneless leg of lamb. If you buy the boneless leg of lamb, often they are held together with an elastic net. You can remove the net and reuse it. If not you will need to tie the leg back up with twine.

A paste of mustard, mint, garlic, oil, brown sugar, salt, and pepper is mixed up in a blender and then spread on the inside of boned lamb. The leg is then rolled up and tied and smoked at 250F until the roast hits 135 to 140 F.

My family loves this and one daughter proclaims it to be the best meat she has ever tasted. If you can find fresh USA lamb, that is best, but even the frozen imported stuff is pretty good fixed this way.

I am having my family which is about 18 for dinner on Mother's Day. I am torn between leg of lamb and prime rib.

I am fairly new to smoking. I have only had my smokette about 5 months. I have smoked salmon, turkey, chicken, pork butt and brisket. Everything has turned out fairly well so far except the brisket, but that's another story.

The lamb is my first choice, but I am a little concerned about smoking lamb because there really are not a lot of recipes out there. Is it because the lamb has such a definite taste that it does not always lend well to smoking? Would the prime rib be more fool proof? I want this dinner to be really special, any suggestions?

I've smoked leg of lamb and love it. Coat the leg with olive oil and sprinkle with Cavender's Greek Seasoning. Wood of choice, 250* until an internal temp of 135*.

Here's some Leg of lamb posts from this forum.

I'd do one for yourself before trying it the first time on 18 people. If you do the lamb for 18, you'll need three boneless legs at 4 lbs each. Try to get American leg of lamb vs. New Zealand.

It's hard to beat prime rib. Not everyone may like lamb, but you can be pretty sure most like prime rib. Here's some posts on Prime Rib. Smokin had a link to Prime Rib 101 but all the links are broken. Maybe he can help with some info.

Thanks for the reply Pags. I think I am going to just "go for it". I don't have time to practice. Three boneless legs sounds about right to me too. Thanks also for the temp info. I assume that you smoke at 225? What is your guesstimate on time?

No problem. I was born in Chicago and lived in Lombard, Ill for many years so I feel like I'm helping a neighbor. I smoke at 250* for around 3 hrs. to 135*.

It'll turn out great. Enjoy.

I just smoked a boneless two pound lamb roast with Cavenders seasoning. I have always enjoyed mutton (pulled and seasoned) but this was my first try with a roast. I smoked at 250 to an internal of 142 (my wife tolerance for red ends at medium for good steak). I still found a little pink in the center, but most was medium well to well.

The taste of lamb roast can be described as dark at best, gamey almost certainly, and sewage at worst. It may be acquired, but I think the use of mint jelly may be a strong indicator that you need something to temper its flavor. Ate it for one meal as a roast, had to resort to barbecue sauce for the leftovers.

Not my favorite meat, but the ten dollar roast at Aldi's made me take the risk. If it has four legs and a face, it is eventually going to end up in my Cookshack.

Sounds like you may have had the New Zealand. American lamb has a milder flavor. Do you know which you had?

Twofer, did the meat smell strong or gamey when you opened the package? Maybe you just got a bad piece of meat.

I smoked three boneless leg of lamb yesterday in my Smokette. Pags coached me through it. It was New Zealand lamb from Costco. I poached the cloves from six bulbs of garlic (yes, I know it is a ton) with a couple tablespoons of thyme, shallots and a few bay leaves in about 1-1/2 cups of olive oil for about an hour. I let this cool and then blended it to form a paste. I spooned about 1/4 cup of the mixture into the center of the roast and then smeared the rest on the outside. I let this sit overnight. On Sunday I put it into the cold smokette with 3 oz. of hickory and a few sprigs of rosemary. I smoked for 3 hours at 250. The internal temp was 135. I held it for about 30 minutes before serving. It was absolutely fabulous. The meat was pink, moist and so tender. Even a couple of people that don't normally eat lamb came back for seconds.

Pags, thanks again for all of the suggestions and encouragement. This was by far the best smoke and the best Mother's Day meal my family has ever had.

Congratulations. Glad it worked out so well. I'll give your paste technique a try next time so I just bookmarked this page.

Garlic seems to go very well with lamb. Well. Except I guess your lamb goes well with garlic. Six bulbs. Wow.

Thanks for posting.

Poaching the garlic in the oil makes it very mild and mellow. This works out to about 2 bulbs per leg which still seems like a lot, but it really was not overwhelming. You will have to let me know what you think after you try it.

Definitely a plan.

The lamb was definitely New Zealand, and hard frozen in that way that burns your fingers when you lift it out of the case. After thawing/marinading in oil and spice it did not have an unpleasant odor. The few times I have encountered bad meat, I was well aware that it was bad.

I may seek out some American lamb, I just couldn't pass up 5 dollars a pound for boneless roast.

My favorite lamb dish is the braised lamb shank that I used to get at a Greek Orthodox church picnic. I would love to try it myself except I can't find lamb shank, or at least find it cheap. I am told that the dish is peasant food, and I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a shank. (intended)

Just an fyi, I just paid $ 4.79/lb at Costco for New Zealand boneless leg of lamb. Not sure where to find American.

Sams Club in this area has New Zeland boneless leg of lamb. Have used it many times and has always been excellent. So are the racks of lamb! Just did 4 racks yesterday!

Are the lamb racks sliced to give lamb chops? One of my top five meals ever was lamb chops at an upscale Italian place calle Vincenzo's in Louisville. Being all white-tablecloth I did everything I could to not lift up the bones and chew on them, but the memory blurs at that point.

They haven't made a restaurant fancy enough to keep me from gnawing on rack bones. I find the lamb rack meat to be as good or better than a lamb chop. Get the two rack package at Sam's and cook them up. Delicious.

quote:

Originally posted by Pags:

When I went to pull the netting from the lamb, most of the marinade and bark pulled away so I sprinkled on some Greek rub/spices and then sliced it.

Wow, too bad Pags, that's the best part. I had a thought,maybe if you took off the net bag and tied the roast with butchers twine the rub and bark would stay on next time.

Good idea.