Leg O' Lamb

[JRPizza]

As many of you probably know, one of the great things about having a WFO is people bringing over food for you to cook in it. We had some friends that wanted to come over for a sports event so they offered to bring a boneless leg of lamb for us to throw in the oven. I hadn't done a leg before so followed the directions in Forno Bravo's "Wood fired cooking".
We covered the bottom of the dutch oven with quartered red potatoes, laid on a few springs of fresh rosemary from the garden, covered with the lamb and some more rosemary. The lamb was lightly coated in olive oil and sprinkled with spices (mostly garlic). The oven was around 375 and it we cooked it for about 30 minutes per pound, which for this leg was around 2.5 hours. The lamb came out medium which was a little more done than we wanted, but after slicing you could cut it with a fork so all was good. Potatoes had a nice rosemary flavor and had soaked up all the yummy drippings.

[Gulf]

That looks mighty fine JR. Thanks for the recipe. I'm going to have to break down and try one of those. About 10 years ago, for the first time ever, I tried a slice of leg of lamb on a cruise. I really didn't care for it at the time. Since then, sheep have made a come back in our area and are now being locally raised. Last year, a friend of mine did a whole lamb for a wedding anniversary. It was great!

[JRPizza]

Lamb is kind of an acquired taste. We ate it when I was young so I like it, but not everybody in the family does. Lamb chops are one of my favorite things to grill - garlic and rosemary, almost burnt on the outside and rare in the middle. Have not cooked any on the Tuscan grill yet but that is on my list.

[deejayoh]

As much as I love my WFO - I have to say that for cooking lamb, sous vide is the only way to go. I cooked leg of lamb for 20 guests this summer. It sat in the water bath for 9 hours, no worries about it overcooking. Came out medium rare all the way through. When everything else was ready, gave it a quick sear on the grill and people raved.

[JRPizza]

Interesting, we've never tried Sous Vide and may have to add that technique to the repertoire one of these days, but I doubt it will ever become the food magnet that the oven is