How to Carve a Leg of Lamb in Just 4 Steps, Plus Recipes to Try (2024)

FAQs

Which cooking method is ideal for a leg of lamb? ›

Whether boneless or bone-in, the perfect leg of lamb should be either oven-roasted until blushing pink on the inside (with an internal temp around 130°F) or roasted long and slow for several hours until the meat is very tender and falls apart to internal temp around 175°F (I often use the slow cooker for that).

Place the lamb on the smoker, fat-cap side down. (This will help protect the meat from any direct heat. If cooking in an offset smoker, place the lamb fat-side up.) Insert Signals' probe into the very center of the meat.

While different cuts of lamb will require slightly different techniques, generally your carving technique should always boil down to one simple rule: always carve across the grain.

The leg is available in several different forms: sirloin end, shank end, short leg, and frenched. You may also ask your butcher to debone and butterfly the leg so that it can be splayed on the grill or stuffed, rolled, tied, and roasted.

-Working from the foot-end (opposite end) of the leg, cut along one side of the foot bone, freeing as much of the bone from the meat as possible. -At the knee joint, (about two-thirds down the foot-bone), change direction, cutting along one side of the thigh bone in the same way to free the bone from the meat.

There are five basic major (primal) cuts into which lamb is separated: shoulder, rack, shank/breast, loin, and leg. It is recommended that packages of fresh lamb purchased in the supermarket be labeled with the primal cut as well as the product, such as shoulder roast or loin chop.

Roast leaner cuts of lamb in a hotter oven (450°F) to get a lovely brown crust and a well-cooked center; cook fattier cuts of lamb low and slow (325°F) to render all the fat and allow the lamb to cook in its juices. Due to residual heat, your lamb will continue to cook even after you pull it out of the oven.

It depends on the cut. If you cook a lamb shank low and slow, it will become more tender as long as you don't let it dry out. A lamb chop, on the other hand, will reach optimum tenderness at medium rare. After that it will become tougher as it cooks.

Season the meat all over with salt and pepper, then rub the lamb all over with the olive oil. Transfer to a roasting tin, sat on the onion slices. Roast for 20 mins. Lower the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and cook for another 15-20 mins per 500g (1 hr – 1 hr 20 mins for 2kg leg) depending on how pink you like your lamb.

For the perfect roast lamb, we recommend seasoning the surface of the meat, and then searing it, especially fat side down in a pan before roasting. Why bother with searing? Contrary to some stories, searing is less about locking in moisture, and all about improving the flavour!

What is the best temperature for lamb leg? ›

The USDA recommends cooking roasts to 145 degrees F. Avoid cooking your lamb beyond this temperature as the meat can become dried out and tough.

Yes, lamb meat can become more tender the longer you cook it, but it depends on the cut of lamb. Here's a breakdown of how different cuts of lamb respond to cooking: Lamb Shank: When cooked low and slow, lamb shanks become more tender as long as they don't dry out.

Look at the leg of lamb. The bone runs through the meat at an angle, giving you two fairly big pieces of meat on either side of the bone. Start with the piece of meat that feels most accessible to you, then flip the roast over and do the second side. Cut the meat into slices across the grain.

The chef's boning knife will be expected to work down the thighbone of a lamb leg without much collateral damage to the meat, and have enough stiffness in the blade to enable tough tendons to be cut with the extreme tip.