As a kid, I always found my dad's enthusiasm for strongly flavored lamb strange (and rather cannibalistic, given that he's a sheep according to the Chinese horoscope). But over the years, I've grown to appreciate the distinct gaminess of this meat, too. Since my parents are visiting for Christmas this year, Justin and I decided we'd try serving a lamb roast, alongside our traditional Christmas dahi vada for the vegetarians.
I'm more familiar with making rack of lamb than leg, so a trial run was in order. We conscripted our friend Mitchell, a lamb connoisseur, into helping with a taste test. Here's the recipe I came up with after traingulating among a few different lamb recipes:
Roast Leg of Lamb
Makes 8-10 servings
Ingredients
1. Untie the lamb leg if it has come from the butcher pre-tied. If there is a great deal of remaining fat, trim it off, leaving about 1/8 of an inch of fat on the meat. (I found that a long marinade did as much to keep the meat moist while cooking as leaving a thick, protective layer of fat around the outside of the roast.)
2. Combine honey, mustard, remaining minced garlic, rosemary, pepper, onion powder, lemon zest and salt. Rub mixture over every surface of the untied lamb leg. Place in a non-reactive container or heavy duty Ziplock bag (i.e. the kind used for freezer storage) and refrigerate for one to four days. I thought our roast was perfect after a four-day marinade.
3. Allow lamb to return to room temperature. Tie the leg using food grade kitchen twine and allow most of the marinade to drip off the roast by itself before placing the meat a rack over a foil-lined roasting pan. Discard the marinade. Pour about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water into the roasting pan to prevent the pan juices from burning. You'll want the juices for a sauce, later.
4. Preheat oven to 400°F. Roast lamb for 15 minutes.
5. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Roast lamb about 20-25 minutes per pound for medium or until internal temperature reaches 140°F when tested with meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of roast. Our lamb was what we considered a perfect medium rare at an internal temperature of 135°F (before resting). For rare, most reputable cookbooks I've seen call for an internal temperature of about 125°F to 130°F.
[For the record, USDA recommended internal temperatures are much higher than these -- absurdly high in my view, if you enjoy eating meat that does not taste like shoe leather: 145°F for medium rare, 160°F for medium and 170°F for well done.]
6. When the lamb has been roasting for 40 or 50 minutes, check the meat and tent with foil if the top looks as thought it may burn.
7. When the lamb has reached your desired internal temperature, transfer it to a cutting board and cover with foil. Let it rest for about 15 minutes before carving. The internal temperature will continue to rise 5° to 10°F during stand time.
9. Cut kitchen twine from roast and discard the twine. Carve the lamb into very thin slices. Serve with pan juices, skimmed of grease, strained and reduced to your preferred concentration. You can add a bit of red wine to the jus while reducing, too.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cups honey
- 4 tablespoons coarse-grained mustard
- 2 tablespoons rosemary
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 Tbs salt
- 1 leg of lamb, trimmed and boned (about 5 pounds). We purchased free-range, grass-fed Australian lamb, which tends to be gamier than farm-raised lamb raised in the U.S. I personally enjoy the healthy gaminess of grass-fed lamb (more common in Australia and the U.K.). If you don't, buy a grain-fed, farm-raised lamb (more common in the U.S. and Canada).
1. Untie the lamb leg if it has come from the butcher pre-tied. If there is a great deal of remaining fat, trim it off, leaving about 1/8 of an inch of fat on the meat. (I found that a long marinade did as much to keep the meat moist while cooking as leaving a thick, protective layer of fat around the outside of the roast.)
2. Combine honey, mustard, remaining minced garlic, rosemary, pepper, onion powder, lemon zest and salt. Rub mixture over every surface of the untied lamb leg. Place in a non-reactive container or heavy duty Ziplock bag (i.e. the kind used for freezer storage) and refrigerate for one to four days. I thought our roast was perfect after a four-day marinade.
3. Allow lamb to return to room temperature. Tie the leg using food grade kitchen twine and allow most of the marinade to drip off the roast by itself before placing the meat a rack over a foil-lined roasting pan. Discard the marinade. Pour about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water into the roasting pan to prevent the pan juices from burning. You'll want the juices for a sauce, later.
4. Preheat oven to 400°F. Roast lamb for 15 minutes.
5. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Roast lamb about 20-25 minutes per pound for medium or until internal temperature reaches 140°F when tested with meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of roast. Our lamb was what we considered a perfect medium rare at an internal temperature of 135°F (before resting). For rare, most reputable cookbooks I've seen call for an internal temperature of about 125°F to 130°F.
[For the record, USDA recommended internal temperatures are much higher than these -- absurdly high in my view, if you enjoy eating meat that does not taste like shoe leather: 145°F for medium rare, 160°F for medium and 170°F for well done.]
6. When the lamb has been roasting for 40 or 50 minutes, check the meat and tent with foil if the top looks as thought it may burn.
7. When the lamb has reached your desired internal temperature, transfer it to a cutting board and cover with foil. Let it rest for about 15 minutes before carving. The internal temperature will continue to rise 5° to 10°F during stand time.
9. Cut kitchen twine from roast and discard the twine. Carve the lamb into very thin slices. Serve with pan juices, skimmed of grease, strained and reduced to your preferred concentration. You can add a bit of red wine to the jus while reducing, too.
Notes:
Some recipes I've seen call for roasting potatoes in the oven along with the lamb. I don't recommend doing this because the moisture from the lamb and the relatively low 350°F cooking temperature seem to keep the potatoes from browning to that delicious golden shade. Using a convection setting on your oven will help you brown those potatoes, but it can also dry out the lamb.
If you must have roasted potatoes, lower the oven rack for the lamb and use an upper rack for the potatoes, starting about 1/2 hour before you anticipate finishing the meat. Continue roasting the potatoes at 400°F after you take the lamb out of the oven and while you rest the meat.
Other good sides for this type of lamb preparation include garlicky pan fried green beans (pictured); wild rice, hazelnut and dried cranberry stuffing, which you can prepare ahead of time and reheat in the microwave while the lamb finishes; and oven roasted winter vegetables, also roasted in advance and reheated in the oven while the lamb rests.
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