I’m still getting the hang of my WSM, so I’ve been hesitant to buy what I consider more expensive cuts of meat - I don’t know what the prices are in the US, but for example pork spare ribs here are AU$19+/kg (by my calculations that’s about US$6.50/lb? Not sure that’s a fair comparison though - probably not doing the currency conversion, so $8.50/lb is the better comparison).
Anyway, I digress, I picked up a small lamb leg roast from Aldi to try and do low and slow. It was 1.2KG or so, bone in - and only $11. After reading the various Lamb recipes in the Meathead book I decided to use the Dolly Dry Rub and Sunlite Kentucky Black Sauce like in the mutton / lamb shoulder recipe, and try to get it up to 95ºC (203ºF) by smoking it low and slow at 225ºF
I dry brined it overnight, and then put on the rub on when I fired up the WSM. Fired up the WSM using the Minion Method - with a mixture of some leftover KBB and Heatbeads (about a handful) in the chimney starter. I’ll probably add some more to the starter next time, took a bit too long to get to 225ºF for my liking (about 45 minutes after I added the beads from the starter). Rubbed and ready to go
Lamb leg went on, along with two little off cuts, and a few small chunks of Mesquite. WSM is still not very well seasoned, and with such a small cut of meat I pretty much had all the vents closed, with one open just a sliver - even then it still hovered around 113ºC (~235ºF) for the most part.
Basted it with the sauce every 20-30 minutes or so for the first hour and a half and then left it alone. At this point I took out the small "cook’s samplers" - they were already delicious (though given how small they were they took on a disproportionately large amount of smoke) which bode well for the rest of the meat! Also added another few small pieces of Mesquite just for a little bit of extra smoke.
About two and a half hours into the cook the meat stalled at 67 (ºC), but I had plenty of time (it was about 1pm, and this was food for dinner) so I didn’t want to crutch it. By this time the burning fuel was a bit more evenly distributed, and I could keep it at 225ºF with two vents open 1/4.
About 3 hours into the stall I was starting to get nervous, it was almost 4pm at this point, so I decided to crutch it after all. Should have done it earlier, still took about half an hour to start climbing, and by the time we were getting too hungry to wait (about 6pm) it was only up to 86ºC. Fresh off the smoker
Still, the result was delicious! The smoke ring was actually quite deep, deeper than I expected. Next time I’d probably go for something without a bone, I have a feeling that’s partly what made it take a bit longer to heat up, and maybe something a little bit flatter.
Welcome to the Pit Marcin ... nice cook. Your smoke ring looks great, even though it's just cosmetic.👍
My suggestion is start your cook much earlier than you think you need to. A big clod of meat benefits from being wrapped after it comes to your preferred done temperature in a Cambro. I never crutch my meat while it's in my smoker, I like heavy bark - bark is flavor.
Your meat can hold a food safe temperature in a Cambro for up to about 4 hours and that rest time improves your meat by allowing the juices to redistribute.
Being done a couple of hours early is MUCH less stressful than being done a couple of hours late.😡
Welcome to the Pit Marcin My suggestion is start your cook much earlier than you think you need to. A big clod of meat benefits from being wrapped after it comes to your preferred done temperature in a Cambro. I never crutch my meat while it's in my smoker, I like heavy bark - bark is flavor.
Thanks for the tips, appreciated! In this case I already thought I did start much earlier than I needed to!
In any event, in this case it still worked out okay - i had it unwrapped for the last 45 minutes or so to dry out the bark a bit, and the wife raved about the flavour, so mission accomplished there
Looks good and I bet it tasted lovely. I suggest a shoulder next time for a long and slow cook - it handles it really well and being a thinner joint it tends to cook faster. It will also pull like a pork shoulder if you get it to 200f or so. A lamb leg can handle a hotter and faster cook and stay juicy and tender though.
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