- Hey carnivores, it's the Holy
Grail of lamb, leg of lamb, and today, I'm going to be
smoking it on the Big Green Egg. I'm going to show you how to season it, I'm going to show you
how to control the flavor so that you don't end up with a gamey lamb after a long smoke, stick around, I'll show you every step of the way. (upbeat music) Okay, let's jump right in. This is an Australian leg of lamb. You guys probably know, I
source my lamb from D'Artagnan 'cause I really like the
products that I get from them, but you can get this probably
from your local butcher, lots of sources. If you want to get one
from D'Artagnan, like I do, there'll be a link down
in the description, but let's go ahead and
get started on trimming. Okay, when you get a whole leg of lamb, there are three parts. So I'll turn it over here so you can see, here there's a little bit of the shoulder that's left over and attached, here's the top of the femur, right? Here's the thigh area,
there's a knee under here, and then, of course, the lower leg. So we're going to trim this
down so that it's just the leg. So I'm going to take the hip off here. And I'm going to use this
later for a lamb sausage, we're not going to need that here. And I'm just going to trim
some of the loose hanging fat. There's really not any silver
skin to worry about here. Now, normally on big pieces of meat, we're trimming the fat cap away. And the reason we're not here
is because this is going to be a long, slow smoke, and
lamb, as you know, is lean. And so we're going to
want this fat to render and enhance the flavor of our lamb. And then the final thing we're going to do here
is called frenching. Now you've seen this on racks
of lamb and lamb chops before, sometimes even pork chops, but this meat down here
that is a really thin, this is going to overcook anyway. So I'm not going to take it off now, but I'm going to make it
easy to take it off later because I'm going to cut all
the way down to the bone, I'm going to come all the way around so that after this cooks, it's going to slide right off. And then that's going
to be kind of a handle we're going to use for presentation. The reason I'm not taking it off now is 'cause I don't really
want the smoke on there, since we're doing it for presentation, I want that nice white bone. And so the meat will protect it, and that meats not going to be something that we're going to
want to eat afterwards, cause it's going to be over cooked, so I'm not going to bother trimming it. Okay, so our next step
is to score the fat cap. So, remember, we said we
wanted this to render. If you've watched the lamb shoulder video that everybody seems to like, the most popular video on the channel, you see that I score the fat
cap and the fat rendered. So we're going to do the same thing here. So I'm just going to make cuts right down. I want to expose the meat, but I don't want to get
too far into the meat, and I'm just going to make
a diamond pattern here. All right. So that's going to help the
fat render really nicely. So now I'm actually going
to make kind of small stabs in the slits here because we
got to stuff herbs and spices in here that are going
to help get some flavor all the way into the lamb. Okay, the first thing we're going
to be working with is garlic. So we want to cut these
garlic cloves just in half, and it's not really about size, but I want to expose
the inside of the garlic so that some of that garlic
oil can get out into the meat. So all I'm doing as a quick slice. Okay, next I'm going to
be working with ginger. I'm going to want to just take
the skin off the bottom part of this ginger here, and
then I'm going to make some just ginger slivers. So I'm just going to
kind of julienne this. (upbeat music) Okay, and then finally, I've
got some fresh rosemary. Is this the most beautiful rosemary that you guys have ever seen? 'Cause I am pretty impressed with it. So I'm just going to cut this
into about inch and a half or two inch long pieces. And you're going to see
what we do with these in a couple of minutes. But unlike usually, I'm
actually going to try to save the stems here cause they're going to be actually pretty helpful. Okay, I told you I was going to show you how to control the gaminess of lamb. So if you've watched previous videos, you know that the gaminess
comes from oxidation. So the meat itself is not gamey, it's just a matter of this kinds of fats are particularly
vulnerable to being exposed to oxygen for a long time. So what we're going to
do, since it's going to be on the grill for a long time, is we're actually going
to cover this in mustard. Mustard is an antioxidant and
this is going to help control how that flavor develops. It's also going to act
as a great binder for us. The other nice thing about mustard is that it's this nice,
bright, yellow color. So I can tell just by looking at it, whether I've missed any spots. So here on the underside, all I'm going to be doing
is a basic seasoning. This is SPG seasoning,
salt, pepper, and garlic. It's two parts pepper
to one part kosher salt, and one part garlic. And so I'm just going
to get a good coating of my SPG. (upbeat music) Okay, now I'm going to turn the lamb over and here we've got the scored side. So in the scored side, I'm
going to do a little bit more. So I'm still going to be using mustard, because again, the fat is what oxidizes, so we want to keep that from oxidizing. And let's start with a
little bit of SPG on here. Okay, maybe not a little
bit, maybe a lot of SPG. All right, now I'm just
going to pat this down. I know we call this a rub, but we really don't want to rub it. We just want to press it
down so that it sticks. Okay, so let's go ahead
and stuff our garlic and our ginger into some of these holes. Do you remember that
rosemary that we cut up? We're literally just going
to stud with rosemary and this flavor is going to
get infused into the meat. The fat's going to render
and pull it down in, but also rosemary is another antioxidant. Okay, it's time to get
some smoke on this thing. I'll meet you at the grill. (upbeat rock music) Hey guys, welcome back to the backyard. If you've been here
before, you know, Darth, our extra large, Big Green Egg. So Darth is running at
250 degrees Fahrenheit. He's burning Fogo Super
Premium Hardwood Charcoal, which is the bigger
chunks that I like to use with my longer smokes. Also, I'm using a couple of chunks, I got three chunks in there of plumwood, and the flavor of the plum smoke is really going to go really well with the ginger, and garlic and rosemary we've got on the leg of lamb. So we should get a really
interesting flavor profile. So let's go ahead and get
the leg of lamb smoking now so we can get some smoke. Now, I'm actually going to be putting in a thermometer right into the
thickest part of the lamb. So this is a probe that goes
with the ThermoWorks Signals so that I can monitor on my phone the temperature of the lamb. Now it's not going to be an
issue for a couple of hours, but this way I can keep track of what's going on with the smoke. Shut. (upbeat rock music) Okay, at 250 degrees, this
is going to be a long smoke. It's probably going to
be five hours, six hours, but we're going to be
back here about every hour and we're going to spritz this
thing with apple cider vinegar and apple juice and just keep it moist. And you'll be able to watch
the progress as we go. So while I will be back in an hour, you'll be back in about four
seconds, see you in a minute. Okay guys, the lamb's
been on for about an hour. It's about 92 degrees
Fahrenheit, internal temperature, so coming along nicely. I'm going to give it a quick spritz with 1/3 apple cider
vinegar and 2/3 apple juice. And let's take a look, I can't wait to see what this looks like. (upbeat rock music) (meat sizzling) Okay, guys, we're done spritzing. It looks really good, as you
saw, it's going to be another, probably four hours or so
while smoking on the grill. So I'll be back a couple
of times to spritz it, but I'll see you when we're done. (upbeat rock music) (meat sizzling) (bell ringing) Hey guys, after only three
hours, our lamb is already ready. So, you know, with a smaller piece of lamb that might happen and, you know, every piece of meat is different, so don't be surprised at it. So let's go see what it looks like, and we're going to get it off and rest. Now I'm going to wrap it in foil and then put it in a blanket in a cooler, and we're going to let
it rest for an hour. That's probably the hardest
part of making big cuts of meat like this, is letting them rest so long, but you guys won't have to wait that long. I'll see you inside
where we slice and plate, and then we get to taste it. I'll see you inside. (slow jazz music) Hey guys, welcome back to the kitchen. I hope you guys remember Leah, my nine-year-old daughter. Say hi, Leah. - Hi. - So today we're going to taste. Now, Leah, you haven't had this before. You've had lamb shoulder, you've had lamb shoulder chops, you've had lamb, rack
of lamb, and loin chops, you've had lamb neck. - [Leah] You think we're
doing too much lamb? - No, I don't think that's
too much lamb, you know why? Because we have a whole bunch
of viewers that like lamb, they're our most popular videos. As a matter of fact, 20% of our viewers are from Australia and New Zealand. And so I know, if they like this stuff, and this is an Australian lamb. So you ready to give this a taste and do your MTY scientific analysis? - Yeah. - [Al] All right, so which
piece is going to be for you? - [Leah] This piece for me. - That's a big one. This one looks really good,
this one's for you guys. So you guys enjoy that one, and I'm going to take a
bite of this one right here. Are we ready? - I just broke mine down, I'm going to make it a little smaller. - Okay, that was smart. Ready? - [Together] Cheers, cheers. - Ah, great.
- Nailed it again, didn't I? Okay, so MTY, moist, tender, yummy. M, moist, definitely got the moist. Okay, T, tender. Yeah? A little bit chewy, but lamb's
going to be a little chewing. - Yeah.
- All right. So for the yummy, like, is it gamey, does it taste a little weird or is it just really good, full flavor? - It tastes exactly like how I want it to. - Okay, that's a good answer. So the mustard worked, we
controlled the gaminess, I think this flavor profile is a good one. I hope you guys will try this. If you like this video, I want you to check out
this one right here, where I did a smoked lamb shoulder, best way to smoke a lamb shoulder. And this one right here, where I did rack of lamb as a
collaboration with Lagom Eats. And we'll see you very soon on, - [Together] "Eat More Vegans."
