BBQ119/17 – Hebridean Leg of Lamb:
I was doing a bit of research on local suppliers and Scottish meats in general when I stumbled onto a few threads discussing how good Hebridean lamb was. Having never tried this before I was keen to get hold of some and managed to buy a Hebridean Leg of Lamb from Highland Drovers at Perth Farmers Market.
The Meat:
As I mentioned above it was a Hebridean Leg of Lamb from Highland Drovers. I think it was about 2 kg for £20.
The Prep:
The shank had been removed and the joint had been trimmed. I have had some great results butterflying lamb and grilling it thanks to a number of DJ BBQ recipes so I decided to do the same again. I simply tunnelled both ends of the leg bone with a knife and pulled the bone through then cut through the natural seam in the leg to open it up. I then sliced the thicker parts to even out the surface of the meat a bit.
As I felt this was going to be a nice bit of meat I didn’t want to mask the natural taste so I just added a bit of salt and pepper on either side.
The Cook:
I fired up a full chimney of Oxford Charcoal Birch – mainly because they state:
Really works with grazing animals, we can’t help feeling sad if someone grills lamb with anything else…
Some time back I cooked hay smoked lamb rumps which were fantastic.
The hay was from a pet shop and Matt from Oxford Charcoal had dropped me a note to say he had a hay based product ready for testing that he sent me with my next order. The hay looked like compressed discs similar to the compressed sawdust you get for stoves.
I poured the lit chimney into the base of the grill and dropped a stack of hay discs on top, added the grill and placed the lamb fat side down over direct heat.
Previous butterflied legs have taken around 45 minutes to cook, this was a bit smaller so I thought it should take a bit less time.
I flipped the meat every 5 or 10 minutes.
It wasn’t flaring up so was fine to cook over direct heat.
The hay burnt slowly but kicked off a good amount of smoke. It’s not one to use in the summer when your neighbour has their washing out! You can see from the redness of the meat how much smoke it added.
When the meat hit 65c internal temperature I took it off to rest.
Time to Eat:
I left the meat to rest for 10 minutes then sliced into it. As always, fingers crossed it was nice and pink!
Result!
Summary:
I really enjoyed this meal. The lamb was very nice, it was obviously a quality bit of meat but it was both tender and juicy. There was a sweet and gamey taste to the meat which went well with the smoke from the hay. The charred crust on the outside was fantastic, there was a scramble round the table trying to get those bits!
As the meat was a mixture of thicknesses you end up with a mix of medium rare, medium, medium well and well done bits. I probably took this a bit further than I wanted so had more medium bits than medium rare, one to keep an eye on next time. The pink bits were awesome and the kids inhaled the more well done bits so it was all good!
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Kettle |
| Cook Method: | Direct |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Birch |
| Smoking Wood: | Oxford Charcoal Hay Discs |
| Cook temperature: | 300C |
| Cook time: | About 35m plus 10m rest |
| Internal temperature: | 65C |
| Notes: | Keep an eye on it and take it off earlier. |