I picked up this leg of lamb at Costco today. Notice the sell by date is 9/9; I won't have time to cook this until at least 9/1-9-2. I'm trying to decide if I should freeze it or keep it fresh. Will it improve with aging?
Then, I also need to decide sous vide, or straight into the pellet smoker. Any suggestions? I've not smoked any lamb yet, and have only cooked lamb a couple of times in the oven.
I would freeze it. You don't want lamb to devlop the flavors that beef does. At 6lbs take it out 3-4 days before you are going to smoke it. I like to make slits every inch and alternate rosemary and 1/4 pieces of garlic in each slit. Then cover the whole leg with a mix of oil, chopped rosemary, garlic and mustard. Smoke with oak at 225=250 until it reaches 130-135. Lamb is not very palatable when cooked rare and gets tough very quickly over 140.
PS: I have 5 legs in the freezer waiting to be cooked now.
Last edited by mountainsmoker; August 18, 2019, 10:00 PM.
You should be fine, even a bit beyond the sell-by date as long as the cryovac is intact. It might tenderize a bit, but I shouldn't think it'd get funky. I don't think I'd wet age it too long past the sell-by.
Comment