whole Lamb

[lwood]

Re: whole Lamb

Does anybody know about posting from facebook? It doesn't seem to render =>

The image is coming from a public page with no privacy settings.

[JD07]

Re: whole Lamb

Well I bought the lamb today nice and small about 22Lbs.

So tomorrow is D Day and I must say I am quite nervous, not sure if I will heat the oven and take out the fire and cook with the retained heat or heat the oven and leave the door off and cook with a small coal fire feed with wet rosemary to smoke the meat??

We shall see which way I decide to go tomorrow..........

Either way it will be a biggest test so far for my little project.

[brickie in oz]

Re: whole Lamb

Ive always liked a fire or coals when cooking, if you add twigs or bark to it you get a nice smoky flavour.

[EricU]

Re: whole Lamb

Well I bought the lamb today nice and small about 22Lbs.

So tomorrow is D Day and I must say I am quite nervous, not sure if I will heat the oven and take out the fire and cook with the retained heat or heat the oven and leave the door off and cook with a small coal fire feed with wet rosemary to smoke the meat??

We shall see which way I decide to go tomorrow..........

Either way it will be a biggest test so far for my little project.

Glad to see this thread back on track. If you can take pics during prep, cooking and of course the finished product, I would love to see them posted.

Where are you going to cut up the tasty little animal? Last year at a buddy's house we did a pig on a spit which came out beautiful, but about the time it was time to take it off spit, we all kind of looked at each other and said "Now What?!" We ended up putting a towel around the edge of his kitchen island and went to town on it.

My vote would be get the oven good and hot then let the fire die down a little, but keep it going with small amounts of wood. Just reading your post I am getting hungry!! (I just sent my wife to the store for game hens and I am gonna fire up my WFO at noon!).

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Eric.

P.S. Don't forget the cracked garlic cloves and red wine, the garlic is for the lamb and the red wine is for the cook(s)!

[JD07]

Re: whole Lamb

Ok things went better than I could have expected. First off I made sure I had all the ingredients.

Spices


Wood


Beer


And Fire

[JD07]

Re: whole Lamb

So then in goes the lamb I went back and forth over the foil but with the fire in it was a good idea to foil the thin areas like the belly and ribs.



It went in for 3hrs 20 min, only had to turn it 4 times so the dog had the right idea to lay back relax and enjoy.

Then I we sit back and relax, the dog knows whats going on.

[JD07]

Re: whole Lamb

We have perfection!



oh yer baby fire roasted lamb and beer has to be one of the greatest pleasures in life.

[JD07]

Re: whole Lamb

So in the end it worked really well. I tried to find some info on this through the search function before I started but couldnt find anything specific so just for the next guy that wants to try here is what I did and what I learnt.

Lamb was 10.5kgs
Seasoned with Rosemary, Thyme, Vegeta, Garlic and Olive oil.
During cooking throw large amounts of wet rosmary on the coals and it really gives a nice seasoned smoke.
Cooking time 3 hrs 20 minutes with 30 minutes additional resting time.
Lamb should come out of the fridge 4 hrs prior to cooking so it goes in the oven at room temp.


I fired the over for 4 hours before the lamb went in the dome temp was about 220 - 260 degrees Celsius on my infa red gun when the lamb went in. I swept out most of the fire and transfered half the larger coals to a webber that I kept burning throughout the day for bigger coals that could be transfered into the oven during the cooking time.

I kept the door off for the whole time and just kept a small coal fire going on the side throughout the cooking.When the lamb came out the dome temp was pretty much unchanged. I have been happy with how it holds temp and I could probably remove the fire and cook with the retained heat over a longer period but the smoke flavor and the ability to watch it cook throughout while drinking a couple of beers was more of a bonus for sure.

There was a fair bit of pressure on as it was a birthday party and everyone was coming over and my what if it doesn't come out right ??? There was huge concern from the benches after 1 hr if this happens at your house please tell your arm chair chefs to go and get you a beer and leave the cooking to the professionals - you.

[EricU]

Re: whole Lamb

We have perfection!...

JD,
That looks AWESOME!!! I don't have any whole lambs, but I have about three left (out of nine) in my freezer and next week, I am gonna try a nice big fat juicy leg of lamb and probably some chops at the same time!

Thanks for posting the pics.

Eric

[rogerhard]

Re: whole Lamb

I will be doing one of these tomorrow! its 15kgs this time so will be interesting to see the time difference in cooking.

[katrina71]

Re: whole Lamb

Looks delicious - we recently did a whole piglet, first time too! Was about 15kg - turned out beautiful, really only took about 4 hours to cook!