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Leg of Lamb


Ron Johnson

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Make little slits into the meat and put some garlic cloves.

Rub the whole thing with lemon zest, sea salt & evoo.....

Watch out for the evoo on the grill. The first time I ever took my favorite mustard/garlic/rosemary/evoo coating for lamb (from Julia's MTA I) from oven to grill, you would not have believed the fire. I still am not sure how I had the courage to rescue the lamb from the fire and clamp the lid on the Weber kettle. This was years ago but my friends still joke about the gigot flambé.

Lesson: a marinade with 1/4 cup of evoo is not the same as a light brushing. I'm not stupid but I sure did a good job of looking dumb that night.

But the yogurt marinade looks amazing. Must try.


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When I grill my butterflied leg of lamb, which is heavily marinated with olive oil, soy sauce, etc., I monitor the fire very closely. I always have a glass of water handy to sprinkle on the coals when they flare up. I never just go off and leave a piece of meat that's been heavily marinated with something flamable. My former husband did the same thing, but with his ever-handy bottle of beer. He said that the beer imparted a better flavor. I couldn't tell any difference and, when it comes to pouring stuff onto coals to calm them down, thought that water was certainly the more cost-effective choice.

Edited by Jaymes (log)

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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Yum............

my favorite on a butterflied leg is equal amounts (the amount of the mustard jar) of a good grainy mustard, peanut oil and soy sauce.............

simple and delicious !

Kathy

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When I grill my butterflied leg of lamb, which is heavily marinated with olive oil, soy sauce, etc., I monitor the fire very closely.  I always have a glass of water handy to sprinkle on the coals when they flare up.  I never just go off and leave a piece of meat that's been heavily marinated with something flamable.  My former husband did the same thing, but with his ever-handy bottle of beer.  He said that the beer imparted a better flavor.  I couldn't tell any difference and, when it comes to pouring stuff onto coals to calm them down, thought that water was certainly the more cost-effective choice.

i'm with you Jaymes, always monitor those flammable marinades...

:laugh::laugh::laugh: i never understood the concept of throwing good beer on a fire either! not unless necessary!

Judith Love

North of the 30th parallel

One woman very courteously approached me in a grocery store, saying, "Excuse me, but I must ask why you've brought your dog into the store." I told her that Grace is a service dog.... "Excuse me, but you told me that your dog is allowed in the store because she's a service dog. Is she Army or Navy?" Terry Thistlewaite

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I barbeque a mock gyro - combining a 5 pound butterflied leg of lamb with a 2 pound tenderized beef round steak - both seasoned with a combination of thyme, salt, pepper, coriander and placed in a marinade (oil, lemon juice, garlic, onion) overnight .

Place the beef on top of the flesh side of the lamb - roll it up - tie - place on a rotisserie - roast for 21/2 hours or so.

Serve in pita bread. top with tomatoes, parsley, yogurt etc.

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i'm with you Jaymes, always monitor those flammable marinades...

:laugh:  :laugh:  :laugh: i never understood the concept of throwing good beer on a fire either! not unless necessary!

Ah HA! You've got one, too! :biggrin:

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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I barbeque a mock gyro - combining a 5 pound butterflied leg of lamb with a 2 pound tenderized beef round steak - both seasoned with a combination of thyme, salt, pepper, coriander and placed in a marinade (oil, lemon juice, garlic, onion) overnight .

Place the beef on top of the flesh side of the lamb - roll it up - tie - place on a rotisserie - roast for 21/2 hours or so.

Serve in pita bread. top with tomatoes, parsley, yogurt etc.

I was thinking of doing something similar. Except I was planning to use Alton Brown's gyros marinade but with a butterflied leg o lamb instead of ground lamb. Then roll it up & tie it & then rotiserrie on the grill.

[edited to fix the quoted post]

Edited by viaChgo (log)
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Combine yogurt/egg mixture with rice.
Thanks Jaymes. This sounds really good. Do you know what part of the Middle East it is from?

I had occasion about 25-years ago or so to host a delegation of Iranian fighterpilots in my home. They were stationed in the US on a pilot-exchange program between the US and Iranian Air Forces.

As I am interested in cooking, when these fellows came for dinner, we'd talk a lot about food. I'd cook for them, and sometimes, they'd cook for us. That particular recipe was from the grandmother to mother of one of them. At any rate, it'd been in their family a long time. So...that'd make it Persian, I believe.

Edited by Jaymes (log)

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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  • 9 months later...

The butt half, a.k.a. sirloin, has more fat and marbling; the shank half is leaner. There's more yield from the shank due both to its leanness and its bone structure. The butt half not only has more bone by weight, but, because of the shapes of the bones, is more difficult to carve.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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What? The butt half has far more yield. The shank half is primarily bone and connective tissue. The butt half has a lot more meat.

Right, that's correct . now see the whole beast.

from behind

gallery_23358_2646_69336.jpg

from the side

gallery_23358_2646_43214.jpg

that's my easter dinner, unprepared.

H.B. aka "Legourmet"

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Whats with the towel around it's head?

It might be unnerving to see it all in one piece, including the head. On the other hand, it's of interest to see how the "pieces" fit together. I covered the head with a papertowel to avoid discussions about.

H.B. aka "Legourmet"

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i agree. the butt has more meat, but it's a little harder to get to. the hip bone is a little bit of a bear to get out, but nothing a reasonably competent home cook couldn't do. once it's removed, though, you'll probably want to finish butterflying it and cook it that way. i think you really need the full leg to be able to bone it and tie it and have it stay that way after cooking.

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SHOW THE HEAD! SHOW THE HEAD! SHOW THE HEAD!

:biggrin:

So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

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Yes, you're all right. The butt yields more meat than the leg shank half. (I guess we know which part of the lamb's anatomy my head was up when I made the prior statement.) But to those who have trouble hacking it, the butt is, as Russ notes, more difficult to carve.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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What? The butt half has far more yield. The shank half is primarily bone and connective tissue. The butt half has a lot more meat.

Right, that's correct . now see the whole beast.

from behind

gallery_23358_2646_69336.jpg

from the side

gallery_23358_2646_43214.jpg

that's my easter dinner, unprepared.

Wow that looks beautiful.. I am hoping to see how this turned out..

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  • 3 weeks later...
What? The butt half has far more yield. The shank half is primarily bone and connective tissue. The butt half has a lot more meat.

Right, that's correct . now see the whole beast.

from behind

gallery_23358_2646_69336.jpg

from the side

gallery_23358_2646_43214.jpg

that's my easter dinner, unprepared.

Wow that looks beautiful.. I am hoping to see how this turned out..

The lamb was extremely good. I made a lamb "crown" filled with root vegetables and the kidneys were used for lamb olives.

gallery_23358_2812_46733.jpg

The legs and shanks were braised in the oven for about 3 hours at 140° centigrade. The meat was so soft and tender that one even could devide and eat it with a spoon.

gallery_23358_2812_448458.jpg

The side dish was rosemary flavoured baked potatoes.

The belly was served as a ragout. So we had three different lamb dishes at the same time and which we and our guests eat up and no leftover.

Edited by legourmet (log)

H.B. aka "Legourmet"

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  • 1 month later...

Being pretty new to eG I've only recently read some of the excellent stuff in eGCI. I really liked Andy Lynes course on meat so decided to try the 7 hour leg of lamb.

We've been slow roasting shoulder of lamb for many years, but at higher temperatures around 100C. Works well, but we just had to try leg at 65C.

My plan was to flash the leg in our electric oven then transfer to our big gas oven for the slow cook. Turned out that the gas oven won't maintain that low a temperature. Not to worry I'll use the electric which will.

The sear went fine & I turned the oven down to 65C & left the door ajar so it would cool more quickly. I then slashed to top of the lamb & laid my anchovy fillets in the cuts.

( see My blog for the proper recipe.)

The oven is now down to about 130C so I put the lamb in thinking it would get down to 65G pretty quickly. MISTAKE! It took quite a while to cool. Meanwhile I was struggling with malfunctioning meat thermometers. Left the meat in the oven.

Checked 4 hours later & found that the internal meat temperature was at 75C already (according to my untrustworthy thermometer) What to do? Turned off the oven, but left the lamb in. At 6 hours I checked again. The temp was at 70C. Turned the oven back on at 65C.

At 7 hours & a bit I took the lamb out. Temp was still 70C. Color was great. I had a professional guest chef do the carving - if only I could carve that well sigh! Made a gravy with the pan juices. The taste was absolutely fantastic. Everybody raved. WOW!

The moral of all this is: First, give your oven time to cool properly before starting the slow cook. Second, the method is very foregiving. Hard as I tried I couldn't screw it up. Third, the lamb was so good that I don't think I'll ever do a leg any other way again.

Thank you eGCI; thank you Andy!

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Due to a sudden change of plans, one of my3 hour leg of lambs became a 27 hour leg of lamb a while back. It held itself at 65C all through the night and most of the next morning. We go to the beach and come back and it's shot up to 85C :(. Meat was ruined. It was very tender though.

PS: I am a guy.

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Due to a sudden change of plans, one of my3 hour leg of lambs became a 27 hour leg of lamb a while back. It held itself at 65C all through the night and most of the next morning. We go to the beach and come back and it's shot up to 85C :(. Meat was ruined. It was very tender though.

My experience is that if the meat is too long in the oven (ten hours and up) it renders to much of its juices. Its still tender, but not juicy. But I guess it depends on the temperature, but I did a leg of lamb for about 12 hours at 60 degrees and it wasnt very good. I did do a pigsknuckle for about ten hours at 55-60 degrees once and it came out very nice, but a little undercooked.

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