Leg Of Lamb, How To Roast It?

(Sophie) #1

I’m new to the lambi-kins thing. We don’t really see much of it for sale in my neck of the woods and if we do, it’s ridiculously priced. I have been seeing a few cuts at the local Sam’s recently and yesterday we picked up a boneless roast (about 4lbs from New Zealand) that I thought I’d cook tonight. I haven’t done one before but I’m sure it can’t be that difficult, can it? I guess peeps use fresh rosemary? I’ve got 3 big bushes of that. Not sure what temps to roast it or for how long though. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

(KetoDrew) #2

Hey JustPeachy,

I just smoked some lamb last night for dinner. My marinade for lamb usually consists of the following:

All these “measurements” I just tend to eyeball… You really can’t go wrong.

Wet Ingredients:
Mustard (Base Moisture) (1/2 cup?)
Olive Oil (1/4 cup?)
Worcestershire Sauce (Just a touch - Maybe a tablespoon)

Dry:
Garlic Minced to taste
Rosemary Minced to taste
Some Sage
Salt & Pepper

Wrap it in some saran wrap stuff and let it sit for several hours or until tomorrow.

Smoking I do at @225F until inside is 140F… roasting I’d probably do somewhat the same, but at the end maybe toss on the broiler to give the top of it a little bit of a crisp :-).

HTH!

(Barbara Greenwood) #3

By way of preparation - poke some holes in the joint with the tip of a sharp knife and push some of your rosemary in to the slits. If you have garlic, slice up a couple of cloves and distribute them among similar slits. Classic combination!!

I am far from being an expert roaster, on the rare occasion I do it, I google for temperatures and times. It’s usually so much per pound of weight plus a bit.

(Sophie) #4

Thanks! I’d love to smoke it but my smoker is wood fired and I don’t have any green wood currently. :frowning_face:
Your rub sounds interesting and eyeballing is just my style of cooking! :grin:
I guess I’ll feel around the webs and see what is recommended for roasting temps/times.

(KetoDrew) #5

Let us know how it goes! Pictures or it didn’t happen :smile:

(Sophie) #6

It happened! :grin: I looked around and ended up using a recipe from the MFG’s site. I figured my first time out of the chute I’d follow their recommendations. Here is the recipe that I used…

http://www.nzlamb.com/index.php/en/recipes/lamb-leg/herbed-roast-boneless-leg-of-lamb

Resting:

Lamb1
Lamb1.jpg600×669 118 KB

Browning:

Lamb2
Lamb2.jpg600×647 123 KB

Dinner:

Lamb3
Lamb3.jpg600×620 121 KB

I’ll definitely do it again. I love how fatty it was and I could have stood to take it out sooner so I’ll keep that in mind next time, but we enjoyed it.

(KetoDrew) #7

OMG that looks INCREDIBLE!

The green beans look perfectly done as well. Kudos on your first attempt at making lamb. I think you’re right on track to enjoying on of god’s most delicious creatures :smile:

(Rebecca) #8

Lamb is my favourite meat. We are lucky here in Australia that it is readily available. I don’t often get roasts but do love my lamb chops.

(KM) #9

Bumping this up. I have a 5 lb Australian leg of lamb I want to roast in the oven. There seem to be two trains of thought about it.

  1. That leg of lamb is pretty lean and needs low slow cooking to release what fat there is.

  2. That leg of lamb is fattier (certainly fattier than shank), and does best with hot quick cooking that doesn’t dry it out. Suggestion was 400 degrees.

I’d prefer it medium rare but know hubs would like it well done (or at least that there are crispy well done bits on the outside.) I’d rather be able to serve it to both of us than have it perfect for me, so any suggestions? (It’s 2 pm and the roast is at room temperature, and I’d like to eat at 6, so no more than about 3.5 hours to cook, plus resting time.

Thank you!!

ETA: I probably won’t season it with anything but salt and pepper, maybe a bit of garlic, unless someone’s got a recipe I simply mustn’t pass up. The rosemary’s not up yet.

(Bob M) #10

The usual is mustard and rosemary.

I find leg of lamb keeps rising after you take it out, so under cook it a bit. That is, if you want 140F internal temp, take out easily by 135 or lower. Also, it’s a misshapen hunk of meat usually, so you’ll get some overcooked parts too. I tend to under cook, maybe 130F or so, the let rest.

Alton Brown cooks it only for an hour:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/silence-of-the-leg-o-lamb-recipe-1910085

If you wanted to try lower temp cooking, heat the oven to 400+, put the roast in for 15 minutes (with a probe thermometer set for 130F), after 15 minutes, open the door and set the temp to say 225 or 200F. Wait until the alarm goes off, take out, tent with foil. Turn the oven on broil. Leave out for probably 15-30 minutes, take off the foil, pop the roast in for a few minutes to crisp the outside.

#11

Roast it fat cap up so all that fat keeps roast moist. I do a sear at 475° or 500° for about 10-15 minutes. Then I lower the temperature to 350°, keep oven door open for 2 mins or so to let higher heat escape. Then I cook it for about 15-20 min per lb at the 350°. I do use a thermometer tho and remove it once interior reaches 135°-140°. It’s always juicy that way. It often cooks way faster than I thought it would. Lol

I use a Dijon Chardonnay mustard that I love. @ctviggen nailed it with prep!

(KM) #12

Thank you! My own ignorance sometimes surprises me, I had to google whether to leave that string net on it or not. :laughing: (I did.)

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #13

Yeah, and the same with a rolled beef roast: leave the string on until serving-time, or the meat unrolls and becomes really difficult to manage. You can even slice it with the string on; just don’t forget to remove the string before putting the piece on the serving platter.

I like to heat the oven to 450° and then turn it down to 350° when the roast goes in. Saves having to remember to come back in fifteen minutes, lol! :grin:

(Sophie) #14

Long time, no see folks! I hope everyone is well!

I tried a new recipe with lamb shanks this Easter. It’s a crockpot slow cook and it was TDF! Crock Pot Lamb Shanks I used broth instead of the beer.

(KM) #15

Um, well now. This is what I get for buying lamb at $5 a pound. I wound up rubbing it in Dijon and salt, quick searing it at 450 15 min. and roasting for another 75 min at about 300 and letting it res…

It was indeed a rolled roast, and the bottom half was turned in an opposing direction. So the top of each slice was against the grain and lovely tender. The bottom was with the grain and tough as shoe leather. :rofl: guess I did the best I could, so thank you everyone!

20240405_184157
20240405_184157.jpg806×604 154 KB

I still ate at least a pound of it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll cut it in half so I can slice each part properly. :roll_eyes:

(KM) #16

Lol. It looks like a bad slide from Gray’s Anatomy. The medulla oblongata is located directly below …

(Bob M) #17

That looks good, and using broth instead of beer is a good idea. I’m not sure if I can actually get lamb shanks, but I’ll look for them.

(B Creighton) #18

I would love this recipe. I eat lamb. The Sam’s Club lamb from New Zealand is grass fed, and affordable. I have some in the freezer right now. I roast my lamb after throwing some EVOO in a pyrex bowl, and stirring in some organic dijon mustard, rosemary, tyme, sea salt, and black pepper. I score my lamb, and turn it in the mix to cover all sides. Throw it in the oven at 300F - takes an hour for 1 pound. I use that low temp to protect the EVOO and the meat from oxidation.

Anyways, would love to have another good recipe! I have a large and a small crockpot.

(Sophie) #19

Hi there, the recipe is a Highlighted Link in my post. Just hover your cursor and you should be able to click it to bring up a new window containing the website with the recipe. I hope you try it. It was surprisingly good.

(B Creighton) #20

Didn’t notice that link the first time. What kind of broth? Beef broth?