- Sep 9, 2011
- 1
- 10
Using either my grill or a homemade setup made from a garbage can, I've smoked beef, pork, poultry, and fish -- all with very good to amazing results.
Last week, I moved on to a small, de-boned leg of lamb. I treated it as I usually would an oven-roasted leg, with an overnight marinade of garlic, a little onion, oregano, some wine vinegar, s & p, allspice and cumin... maybe something else.
I have a bunch of maple scrap from work that I've used with good results on other meats, and I used that this time, too. As far as smoke and temp goes, everything seemed pretty ok.
However, after 4 hours when the meat was nice and done, I felt like something was off -- while the inside was perfectly done, the outside seemed conflicted. The delicate flavor of the lamb seemed almost overwhelmed by pungent smoke flavor, and I found myself almost struggling to enjoy one or the other. The two just didn't quite meld.
Lamb is a more delicately flavored meat than beef or even a lot of poultry. Is there special treatment I should consider when smoking it to better adapt to that? Different wood? Different marinade? Lamb is just so subtle and succulent when done right -- I want to figure out how to blend that with delicious smokiness if I can.
Last week, I moved on to a small, de-boned leg of lamb. I treated it as I usually would an oven-roasted leg, with an overnight marinade of garlic, a little onion, oregano, some wine vinegar, s & p, allspice and cumin... maybe something else.
I have a bunch of maple scrap from work that I've used with good results on other meats, and I used that this time, too. As far as smoke and temp goes, everything seemed pretty ok.
However, after 4 hours when the meat was nice and done, I felt like something was off -- while the inside was perfectly done, the outside seemed conflicted. The delicate flavor of the lamb seemed almost overwhelmed by pungent smoke flavor, and I found myself almost struggling to enjoy one or the other. The two just didn't quite meld.
Lamb is a more delicately flavored meat than beef or even a lot of poultry. Is there special treatment I should consider when smoking it to better adapt to that? Different wood? Different marinade? Lamb is just so subtle and succulent when done right -- I want to figure out how to blend that with delicious smokiness if I can.
