Recommendations for cooking leg of lamb

[BARDSLJR]

Well, boys and girls, I scored a 6.5 lb boneless leg of lamb yesterday at Costco, and I plan on cooking it tomorrow on my 32" KK. Haven't been through ALL my BBQ cookbooks yet, but so far, Franklin doesn't have anything to say about lamb. I am going to have to find Meathead Godwyn....in the meanwhile, I am sure some of you, especially my Aussie colleagues, have some tips and recommendations for doing a nice leg of lamb?

[Rich Arnold]

Well, boys and girls, I scored a 6.5 lb boneless leg of lamb yesterday at Costco, and I plan on cooking it tomorrow on my 32" KK. Haven't been through ALL my BBQ cookbooks yet, but so far, Franklin doesn't have anything to say about lamb. I am going to have to find Meathead Godwyn....in the meanwhile, I am sure some of you, especially my Aussie colleagues, have some tips and recommendations for doing a nice leg of lamb?

I’d do it hot and fast. I did a lovely tandoori leg the other week. Marinated overnight in Indian spices and then a hot cook on the high plate on my 32”. Took about 90 mins

[Troble]

Balsamic vinegar, cumin, mint, salt, pepper, garlic. 
 

rotisserie  that bad boy if you have it

ive done a bunch of leg of lambs recently and Basher has as well. Use the search function and you should get a bunch of hits 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2021 by Troble

[tony b]

I'm thawing out a 2.5 lb boneless leg of lamb from Porter Rd for tomorrow. Plan is to rotisserie with coffee wood chunks. I have my own house lamb rub that I've developed over the years. It's a mashup of Greek/Turkish/Moroccan styles of spices/herbs. It leans more oregano than mint, but has both in it. The Moroccan style brings the heat (cayenne) and a hint of cinnamon. 

My other fav is the simplest -  tons of garlic & rosemary. Stab slits into the meat all over and jam in big slices of garlic and tufts of rosemary leaves. Then hit the outside with S&P. 

[Basher]

Not much more to ad here.
Bards you can cook a leg of lamb to medium rare or have it fall off the bone. For pulled lamb I’d prefer the shoulder over the leg.
Also, I’d highly recommend balsamic vinegar even if it’s just to moisten the meat to help your rubs stick.
herbs that suit- garlic, cumin, rosemary.


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[Braai-Q]

6 hours ago, BARDSLJR said:

Well, boys and girls, I scored a 6.5 lb boneless leg of lamb yesterday at Costco, and I plan on cooking it tomorrow on my 32" KK. Haven't been through ALL my BBQ cookbooks yet, but so far, Franklin doesn't have anything to say about lamb. I am going to have to find Meathead Godwyn....in the meanwhile, I am sure some of you, especially my Aussie colleagues, have some tips and recommendations for doing a nice leg of lamb?

Lots of different ways to go here but never underestimate anchovy, garlic, rosemary and lamb. Plenty of good recipes which will give you an idea but I tend to do that mixture as a marinade and then do it in the KK. You want an internal temp of 60-70C for rare-medium rare which is the way to do lamb. Even if you hate anchovy, trust me on this.

[BARDSLJR]

Alas, just last night put the last three anchovy fillets left over from the caesar dressing I made from scratch the week before in my wife's Chef's Salad. Not the sort of thing I keep around on hand, although I should, at least as a paste.

Did manage to make a paste with one whole bulb of very fresh garlic, a lot of fresh rosemary, and a little olive oil. The results shown in attached photo. Leg of lamb is on the grill. Results in about 2 hours, eta, more or less.

[Basher]

Lamb remains my favourite meat, especially the African breeds we are now farming here for meat.
If you see Dorper or Meatmaster breeds, try it out.
I just took delivery of 10 more lambs and distributed amongst friends so I expect to be cooking some more soon.


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[Braai-Q]

8 hours ago, BARDSLJR said:

Alas, just last night put the last three anchovy fillets left over from the caesar dressing I made from scratch the week before in my wife's Chef's Salad. Not the sort of thing I keep around on hand, although I should, at least as a paste.

Did manage to make a paste with one whole bulb of very fresh garlic, a lot of fresh rosemary, and a little olive oil. The results shown in attached photo. Leg of lamb is on the grill. Results in about 2 hours, eta, more or less.

You look like you're heading in the right direction. There are so many different ways to do lamb but I think many of the western style recipes centre on garlic, rosemary, mint as the point of departure and simplest way of doing lamb. It's just a flavoursome meat anyway. Greek, Moroccan, Lebanese, Israeli, Indian, Malay all have variations. 

I'll write up a good recipe but the anchovies was something that I first tried about 20 years ago and have sworn by ever seen. It provides a dimension of umami flavour that hits all the right notes.

How did it turn out in the end?

[Braai-Q]

5 hours ago, Basher said:

Lamb remains my favourite meat, especially the African breeds we are now farming here for meat.
If you see Dorper or Meatmaster breeds, try it out.
I just took delivery of 10 more lambs and distributed amongst friends so I expect to be cooking some more soon.

A man after my own heart. I'm a big fan of lamb. 

A recipe that we do quite often is this Roast Loin of Lamb with Braised Peas and Salsa Verde. It's a superb and easy meal. I have created variations from the original to include Don Bocarte Anchovies. They're hellishly expensive anchovies but if you get a beautiful piece of Salt Marsh Lamb, mixed to a paste to have with the meat, it's incredible. The anchovies contain inosinate which combined with the glutamate in the lamb elevates the flavour. Now I've made myself hungry.

[BARDSLJR]

I know this boneless leg of lamb I got from Costco is an Australian lamb, but sorry, they don't indicate the breed. The lamb, as usual, turned out to be fabulous- nearly every time I do this, I end up saying the same thing: Why don't we lamb more often? Of course, it was a six pound piece of meat, so now I will be soliciting favorite recipes for leftover or reheated lamb roast, as we probably have enough for four more nights. Hmmmmmm. Curried lamb, lamb hash....

BTW, it turned out great- very simple recipe to make a paste with fresh garlic and rosemary rubbed all over the roast and cooked in 32" KK at about 350* for 2-plus hours, flavored with cherry and apple wood.

I will look for the Don Bocarte anchovies.

The meat turned out great: the pita bread, not so much- I should have read the instructions and heated on the grill for two or three minutes (looking for a little change of color). If I had READ THE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS, I would have seen they recommend very light heating for 30 seconds. So the pita that I hoped to use came out over-cooked and hard, with no discernable pockets, and we had to serve the meat and grilled peppers on top of it. Also, My daughter offered some commercial tsazki (SP?) mix which we used with the yogurt, and we would have been better off with just a little fresh mint (which I could not find this time of year).

But I am reminded again how much we really, really like lamb. Thank you Australia...Happy Easter and Happy Spring, everyone!

[Troble]

@BARDSLJR looks good. Nice job. This is my go to recipe for homemade Tadziki that I always pair with lamb. It’s super easy to make and absolutely delicious (note I double the garlic but that’s how my wife andI like it)

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/claire-robinson/easy-tzatziki-recipe-1924366

[BARDSLJR]

Thanks, I printed it out and I will remember about the garlic (garlic is your friend.)

[GrillnBrew]

I too did a Costco leg of lamb, made a paste of fresh garlic, mint and rosemary, let it marinate overnight, then cooked it on the rotisserie close to 400.  It turned out great and was quickly inhaled by my guests.  @BARDSLJRI see you left a significant amount of fat on the leg, I trimmed most of the fat off of mine.  As this was only my second boneless leg, I wasn't sure of how much fat to trim, but I went with the less fat, more spice and smoke exposure for the meat.  I've heard that lamb fat can be gamey and should be trimmed, but I've also heard it's delicious and one should leave some of it on the meat.  Just curious how others approach trimming a leg of lamb.

[BARDSLJR]

The recipe I was using for roasting in the KK stipulated leaving the fat on and cooking "meat side down". It makes sense that you would want to remove the fat for rotisserie, however, as you would want the leg to cook evenly, which it obviously couldn't do with a 1/2" fat cap on one side.

[tony b]

I posted this in the Cooking thread, but thought it appropriate to repeat here. Boneless leg from Porter Rd, so it was trimmed up nicely to start with. My house rub, with a bit of extra mint tossed in, made into a paste with Duke's mayo and shoved inside with a teaspoon, along with rubbing the outside. Rotisserie cook, with smoker pot of coffee and apple woods, 275F until rare (120F). 

[BARDSLJR]

Lovely! I've never tried coffee wood, will have to see if I can find some.

[Syzygies]

Steven Raichlen PBS Project Smoke ~ Tandor Lamb

On a KK, of course.

One can find "Tandoor: the Great Indian Barbecue" used sometimes. It's one of my favorite Indian and BBQ cookbooks.

 

[Troble]

@Syzygies this is a very timely post as I’ve been looking into doing Indian food more. How do you cook these recipes on your kK? Do you use a Tajine or another device?

Edited April 6, 2021 by Troble

[Jadeite]

33 minutes ago, Syzygies said:

One can find "Tandoor: the Great Indian Barbecue" used sometimes. It's one of my favorite Indian and BBQ cookbooks.

 

Thank you so much for mentioning this book.. I am a big fan of Indian Cuisine and I had never heard of this one.. did a quick google and this is one of THE books. I'll need to pick it up!