- Oct 25, 2007
- 60
- 10
[Note: This old write-up pertains to a smoke that I did last year. Since it pertains to lamb and lamb is a pretty esoteric topic, I figured that it would be good to get this info onto SMF. If you want to see pix, you can find them HERE.]
Hello, SMFrs:
Since the entire country of Spain falls into a coma every Sunday, I decided to torment the neighbors by doing a bit of smoking. Here's the tale of the tape:
* Smoker: WSM, imported from the US at great expense.
* Fuel: Lump, Minion Method.
* Wood: Six chunks of oak.
* Heat Sink: Water pan filled with sand.
* Cooking Temp: 250-275F
* Meat:
- Four pound leg of lamb--Marinaded overnight in 1 part Kikoman's Soy Sauce and 2 parts vegetable oil. Then dried with paper towels and dusted heavily with Magic Dust dry rub (recipe can be found in "Peace, Love and Barbecue."
- One large chicken--Split vertically and brined overnight in a mixture of 6T table salt, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 quart water. No spice rub. This will be used to make chicken salad for my four year old daughter.
- One sweet potato--Washed and poked with fork.
- One COCONUT--Sawed in half. Yeah, that's right...I smoked a coconut. Why not?
* Sauce: "Black Sauce" recipe from "Smoke & Spice." This is for the lamb, obviously
I pulled the coconut at hour three. It was probably one hour too much, since it was a bit dry. My fault for running out to have a coffee. :-O
The chicken hit 160F in the breast and 170 in the thigh at the 4 hour mark. She was beautiful! I set her in a foil tent for twenty minutes and then shredded her. My four year old is going to love it.
The leg of lamb hit 170F at the 4.5 hour mark. It yanked it, wrapped it in heavy-duty foil and put it in a cooler for an hour.
Then I tried to shred it. But it wouldn't shred...which shouldn't have surprized me, since a butt wouldn't shred at 170F either.
The reason that I chose 170F as the stopping point was that Smoke & Spice's recipe for Owensboro-style mutton cited that temp. Perhaps cooking lamb to 190F (i.e., normal shredding temperature for a butt) would dry it out too much(?). I don't know, because I've never tried it...although it makes sense, since lamb is much leaner than pork. Maybe next time, I will smoke it to 190F and see what happens.
So, anyway...I sliced and then chopped the lamb, instead. No problems here. The meat was juicy; which was a relief, because I was a bit concerned about drying it out. I like lamb rare or medium-rare when I grill it.
It was outrageously spicy. Magic Dust (which is soooo my favorite rub recipe!) has a hell of a kick to it.
I served the chopped lamb on white bread, and drizzled it with the Owensboro-style black sauce (recipe in Smoke & Spice). Fabulous!
My only regret is that I didn't have any guests that day. That's a lot of work for a lunch for one person. But at least it killed an otherwise boring Sunday in Spain.
Sal
Hello, SMFrs:
Since the entire country of Spain falls into a coma every Sunday, I decided to torment the neighbors by doing a bit of smoking. Here's the tale of the tape:
* Smoker: WSM, imported from the US at great expense.
* Fuel: Lump, Minion Method.
* Wood: Six chunks of oak.
* Heat Sink: Water pan filled with sand.
* Cooking Temp: 250-275F
* Meat:
- Four pound leg of lamb--Marinaded overnight in 1 part Kikoman's Soy Sauce and 2 parts vegetable oil. Then dried with paper towels and dusted heavily with Magic Dust dry rub (recipe can be found in "Peace, Love and Barbecue."
- One large chicken--Split vertically and brined overnight in a mixture of 6T table salt, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 quart water. No spice rub. This will be used to make chicken salad for my four year old daughter.
- One sweet potato--Washed and poked with fork.
- One COCONUT--Sawed in half. Yeah, that's right...I smoked a coconut. Why not?
* Sauce: "Black Sauce" recipe from "Smoke & Spice." This is for the lamb, obviously
I pulled the coconut at hour three. It was probably one hour too much, since it was a bit dry. My fault for running out to have a coffee. :-O
The chicken hit 160F in the breast and 170 in the thigh at the 4 hour mark. She was beautiful! I set her in a foil tent for twenty minutes and then shredded her. My four year old is going to love it.
The leg of lamb hit 170F at the 4.5 hour mark. It yanked it, wrapped it in heavy-duty foil and put it in a cooler for an hour.
Then I tried to shred it. But it wouldn't shred...which shouldn't have surprized me, since a butt wouldn't shred at 170F either.
The reason that I chose 170F as the stopping point was that Smoke & Spice's recipe for Owensboro-style mutton cited that temp. Perhaps cooking lamb to 190F (i.e., normal shredding temperature for a butt) would dry it out too much(?). I don't know, because I've never tried it...although it makes sense, since lamb is much leaner than pork. Maybe next time, I will smoke it to 190F and see what happens.
So, anyway...I sliced and then chopped the lamb, instead. No problems here. The meat was juicy; which was a relief, because I was a bit concerned about drying it out. I like lamb rare or medium-rare when I grill it.
It was outrageously spicy. Magic Dust (which is soooo my favorite rub recipe!) has a hell of a kick to it.
I served the chopped lamb on white bread, and drizzled it with the Owensboro-style black sauce (recipe in Smoke & Spice). Fabulous!
My only regret is that I didn't have any guests that day. That's a lot of work for a lunch for one person. But at least it killed an otherwise boring Sunday in Spain.
Sal
