Leg'O Lamb

[Kascon11]

I smoked my first leg of lamb yesterday (sorry no pics this time). I had a few bad choices (not enough prep time, not allowing enough time for the cook (got dark and cold and had hungry family), too much wood/smoke) Wife was not happy with results. It was tasty and tender but a bit too smokey (lost some of the lamb goodness). I left it wrapped in the netting, and just added salt a couple of hours before cook. Took it to 150 (my wife's perferred doness). Like i mentioned above, it was tender and tasty. I think I can do better next time,

My question is can you do a "pulled" leg of lamb? If I take to 200- 205 will it still be moist? I read on Cooks Illustrated that I can wet brine lamb has any body tried that?

I am just planning on how to do things better the next time.

Thanks in advance for any advice given.
Have a great week.

[ecowper]

I've been thinking about doing this ..... Mutton or leg of lamb, slow cooked Kentucky style

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/barbecue-sauce-recipes/sunlite-kentucky-black-bbq-sauce-dip-lamb-and-mutton

[Kascon11]

Thanks for the link. I might try like the Dolly's lamb rub.

[Troutman]

I don't personally prefer that but as ecowper points to, any piece of tough meat that is a working muscle benefits from slow smoking up to the magic 200+ degree mark. It breaks down those tough connective tissues and renders the fat.

On brining we're more about dry brining with salt. On a large piece of meat like leg-of-lamb you should leave it in your fridge for up to 48 hours to allow the salt to penetrate until equilibrium is achieved. Wet brining basically does the same thing, it's just the dry method is so much easier.

[ecowper]

If you are going to cook leg of lamb and want to cook hot and fast, you need to debone and cut the leg into smaller pieces. In that process, you will be able to remove connective tissues, fat layers, and silver skin and that will help a lot with toughness. Then you can cook the small pieces of lamb hot and fast to somewhere between medium rare and medium.

Meathead has a pretty good recipe for this that my family enjoys

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/lamb-recipes/moroccan-leg-lamb-mechoui-recipe

[Kascon11]

I like the whole leg, I usually rotisserie it, but since I got my Pit Barrel, I thought I would try that. I do like the spice combination on the method in the link. Something to consider for the next cook (or the one after that, so many good choices)....

[Bkhuna]

Many years ago, Cook's magazine did a article about that technique. Took a leg of lamb and broke it down to it's three major muscle groups. Cleaned them, seasoned them, and tied each group into a small "roast". I did it and it was yummy. It took a goo 45 minutes to clean up most of the intramuscular globs of fat, silverskin, and assorted sinew. Worth the work. I think I still have the .pdf file of the recipe.

[kill2grill]

Tried running a leg of lamb to the temps for pulled after reading some folks liking it and wanted to punch myself in the face for ruining a perfectly good piece of meat.

That being said, I like my lamb medium rare/rare. Most things over medium rare kill what tastes so good about lamb. And that may very well be why some like to run it to 200+

[Kascon11]

My daughter and I are medium lamb people my wife is medium to well. What were the issues when you cooked the lamb to 200 mark? was it dry did the texture change? I did notice with the wood chunks I used (too much) the primary flavor was that of the smoke, it was good, but it lost that good lamb'y flavor. That was way I posted, would a wet brine and no wood (I am using a pit barrel) keep it moist?

[kill2grill]

It was dry. Might I recommend if you haven't already, checking out this post https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...-lamb-shawarma

[Kascon11]

Thanks for that post. It looks awesome. I will give that a try for the next leg'o lamb.

[Dewesq55]

I think lamb shoulder would be much better than the leg. I find that the leg dries out fairly easily. I generally don't use it for braised dishes, such as Indian curries/masalas. I will get shoulder chops debone them and cube them up. It gives a much better mouth feel, IMHO.

[Mark V]

Please don't cook leg of lamb to the point of pulling. That is the answer.

[frailinryan]

I've never tried to cook a leg of lamb up to 200. I would be afraid it would be dry.. I prefer to debone it and tie it like a ribeye roast, cooking it to medium rare.

[das85]

Pulled lamb shoulder ("square cut") may be my favorite meat to bbq, using a rub of mostly black pepper, plus some brown sugar, garlic, and allspice. And the sunlite sauce in the link ecowper put above. Crowd pleaser for both lamb lovers and those who don't usually enjoy lamb..

I do find I need to wrap at the end to get it to pull though. Once smoked a shoulder 18 hours unwrapped just to see if it would ever get there. Still needed to wrap for an hour to get it to pull.

For leg of lamb, no matter what else I try, I always end up coming back to Harry Soo's recipe as my favorite here: https://www.slapyodaddybbq.com/2015/...ichurri-sauce/

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[Kascon11]

Thanks for the link. I have watched some of his YouTube channel. Always want to try what he is cooking.