"Mike Avery" wrote in message
news:mailman.6.1166112124.9054.alt.food.barbecue@m ail.otherwhen.com...
43fan wrote:
I've never cooked a leg of lamb period... but my brother in law asked me
if I'd want to try a leg of lamb in the smoker either for Christmas Eve
or New Year's Eve... There'll be LOTS of other food, so if this doesn't
go well, it won't be a bust as far as not having anything to eat... *g*
But, lamb's on sale pretty good at a local market right now, just curious
if it's worth looking at?

Not that many BBQ's ago, I switched from an Old Smokey electric (which I
liked, but not enough) to a Char Broil Silver Smoker offset smoker. So,
I'm still learning how to keep the fire under control and all that good
stuff. As a result, I tend to do things simply. I'll get more
adventurous as I become more experienced.

All this leads up to the leg of lamb. I washed it, patted it dry,
sprinkled it with koshering salt and freshly ground black pepper. I fired
up the smoker with lump and put some aspen wood on top of that.

I tried to keep the temperature in the 200 - 250 range, and mostly
succeeded. When the meat got to 170, I pulled it out and we had dinner.
It was, if memory serves, about 8 to 12 hours. I really should take
notes. My wife likes her pork and lamb on the more done side.

She commented that the leg of lamb was by far the best thing to come out
of the smoker, and she really liked the brisket, the chicken, the pulled
pork, the boudain, and the turkey.

Whether you get fancy or do it simply, I think you'll like the results.

Mike


It's almost sinful to roast leg of lamb to 170F! You'll end of with dry
tough meat. Lamb should be cooked like standing rib, rare, rare, and more
rare. Build an indirect fire. Char the outside quickly at a high temp.
Rotate the leg once in a fifteen minute period to get both sides. Then cook
indirectly to an internal temp. of 130F at a very low grill temp. We never
buy a boned, or bone a leg at home. That robs the meat of flavor and makes
it dry out.
Always, we use stabs of garlic and rosemary sprigs in about 25 different
places on the lamb. We never marinade. This would be to us like marinading
standing rib.
A lot, if not the majority of lamb in the US comes from from abroad,
primarily New Zealand. American lamb, if you can find it, is much better,
though the leg is slightly larger than the other.

Kent