Leg of Lamb..... Failure


 
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Brian L.

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I BBQed a half leg of lamb today and had it for dinner. It was absolutely TERRIBLE. Saturday I went to Harris Teeter in Brentwood. They only had one half leg of lamb that was unseasoned. I bought it and brought it home. I tried to butterfly it and debone it but ended up cuttin it in half by accident. I cut out the fat pockets on the inside and marinated it overnite in a red wine/garlic marinade.

Today I skewered the top to the bottom in an attempt to keep it whole. I smoked it for 4 hours with some rosemary and pecan. It ended up moist and tender and had a great smoke ring in it. But it tasted awful! It wasn't the smoke or the marinade, it had that funky mutton taste that I hate. I have had lamb chops and ribs at fancy resteraunts that tasted awesome, and they didn't have that funky taste. Did I do something wrong, or do Leg of Lamb roasts always have that taste?
 
Lamb is lamb. I like it medium rare. Pulled at 130-135. Rest for a few.
Someone else recently wrote he lies to cook to a higher temp to get rid of the 'wool' taste. I am not sure if that would change the flavor much or not.
 
Brian,
I have cooked leg of lamb several times and never encountered a "mutton" taste you are referring to. To me lamb does have a distinctive taste though, you like it or you don't. That may be what you are referring to as "mutton taste". I love lamb, my family doesn't at all. The lamb you had in the "fancy" restaurants was probably served with some sort of sauce that may have helped tone down the distinctive/mutton taste your are encountering. The only way you will know for sure is to fire up your WSM and throw on another leg. If it has the same taste you do not like. Then you will know you don't care for leg of lamb. Good luck
 
Steve, you mean you never notice a difference between wee little lamb chops and big gamey ones? I sure do!

Not sure if there's ever a leg of lamb that isn't muttony tho. I bet it would make good fake gyros, tho, if you sliced it thin and served it on pita bread with that yogurt dill sauce and lettuce and feta cheese and stuff...!
 
Yeah, baby! Gibbs is lucky that NOT challenging that bad spotting of the ball near the endzone didn't come back to bite him later on. I was worried for a minute, but no need!

Seemed like kind of a slow game, tho. Started out lively but then got a little dull. Except for the winning!
 
Greg,
You have got to be kidding me?<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Skins luckly to have won!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The Skins dominated the entire game, (defensively). How many points did the Buc's offense score??? 3!! 2 calls went against the Skins that if Gibbs would have asked for instant replay would have been over ruled! How many sacks did the Buc's have?...................um..........NONE! Redskins had 4! How many interceptions? Buc's 0 Skins 1! Total yards Buc's 169 Skins 291! Rushing yards Buc's 30 Skins 169! We also won in Time of posession, first downs and 3rd down conversion. How were the Skins lucky to have won??????? What game were you watching???? Go Skins

BTW, The Browns looked pretty impressive.
 
Larry, Brown's fan taking joy in mixing the pot of Skins fan...no harm meant!! Bucs are a sorry team and Washington did handle their business. Too bad Clinton Portis doesn't know how to find a whole and break throguh it...YIKES what a run he had!! Denver eating crow for letting him go for a CB(even if it is Champ)!!

Browns happy to have off-loaded a wasted #1 draft pick who shall remain nameless who know resides in Cheeseville!!
 
Greg,
I know no harm was meant! I was just rubbing the Skins win in too. How long has it been since we have dominated a game. I am in the same boat as you!! One of us will be very quiet in three weeks when we play each other in Cleveland. Should be a good game.
 
Ok well back to leg of lamb here (nothing wrong with a little football trash talking though)

Was the leg of lamb domestic or improted I've had good luck with domestic lamb and SOME new Zealand but I tend to stay away from Australian lamb.

I recently mad ea trip to Moon Light BBQ in Owensboro and spent a couple of hours there before the bufffett opened for dinner (then another good hour or two)

If this isnt too far for you as it is nothern KY I'd plan a road trip. They do pulled leg of lamb (mutton)that was very good with almost no gamey taste but a nice lamb taste. I haven't decided to doa leg of lamb on the WSM yet as I love to rotisserie them on a kettle with a paste of garlic, olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and rosemary, and oregano.

The Owensboro area has a couple of joints that specialize in this and they do ALOT of it. At Moonlight (they took me in the cooler with the hanging lambs (thought they have in the last few years converted over to buying some legs)

They didn't butterfly their legs (I would only do this for a direct grill apporach like in How to Grill by Steve Raichlen "Seseme Ginger Grilled butterflied leg of lamb")

They instead did them like we do pork shoulders low and slow with a nice rest and then pulled.

Sound like a good excuse for a road trip??
 
Lamb can vary alot in flavor. We "won" a butchered lamb at a silent auction a couple of years ago that was pretty strong tasting. I think the "lamb" was pretty old, since we ended up with 70 lbs. of meat.

I just talked this weekend with another producer that raises lambs for the food market. His feeling was that imported lamb can be good, but it does have a lot of miles on it. He said people tend to buy big legs, too, which are from older lambs and thus can have a stronger mutton flavor.

By the way, I bought some chops and stew meat from him. We had lamb stew last night and it was delicious. Can't wait to try out the chops!
 
I know the exact taste youre speaking of and cant stand it. Lamb chops always look absolutely delicious but cant get past that funky flavor...turns my stomach just thinking about it. If you kill a piglet will the chops be tiny like lamb chops??? Ahh... the thoughts that kept me out of the good schools...

Anyway, I wouldnt look at it as a failure...its just how the meat tastes.
 
You guys ARE right. I meant all lamb 'tastes like lamb'; which it does. There is however as several of you are pointing out significant differences in flavor. I stand corrected.
 
My guess is that you got a bad piece of meat, it happens.... Take it back where you got it and give it another go. I have never had a nice leg of lamb taste like mutton.....
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tony Weisse:
... I think the "lamb" was pretty old, since we ended up with 70 lbs. of meat ... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
nahhh, it was just big boned
icon_smile.gif


haven't eaten tonnes of lamb, but I've had chops that had mutton taste and some that didn't. If I knew how to avoid it I'd cook lamb myself.
 
It could of been an old lamb. It was called a half leg bone in and weighed around 4 lbs. When I was a kid I had leg of lamb and I hated it. In the last couple of years I had lamb chops a few times. A couple of times at this really nice resteraunt near Destin. I noticed that taste was there, but very, very mild. I thought if I got a good leg of lamp it would taste similar.

Maybe I just got a bad leg of lamb, because that funky flavor was the dominant flavor. Maybe I will give it a go one more time.

Right now I had to go to northern California for work, so maybe sometime this fall I can try it again.

Hope to make it to the Jack!

I might as well add GO TITANS!!!!!!!
 
Brian,

A good way to tell if you like lamb is to cook it the simplest way possible. Get a leg, bone and butterfly it and throw it on the grill (gas or charcoal, I definitely recommend charcoal.) with just kosher salt and fresh groung black pepper. Cook until medium rare about 140°.

I think ALL lamb gets a little musty when cooked passed medium.

The leg in general can have a slightly stronger "lamb" taste than the little loin chops due to the amount of fat and the fact that the muscle has been worked more. Kind of like the dark and white in poultry.

The other addition that really couldn't hurt would be to insert several slivers o' garlic into the meat before grilling. Garlic and lamb were meant for each other !!!!!!

And hold the mint jelly yuk!!!

Al
 
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