Roast Leg of Lamb

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A Bower Family Tradition

It’s Easter so that means two things matzah ball soup for Passover and leg of lamb for Easter. Matzah ball soup is something I got from a Jewish friend growing up but the lamb is a family tradition. Most people hear lamb and can’t bare the thought of eating a sweet fluffy baby lamb. I love sheep and lambs but just like cows, pigs, and chickens it’s just another thing we eat. Growing up we did not typically have lamb very often. It’s an expensive meat and was reserved for Easter supper. My Dad grew up eating it and introduced my Momma to it when they got married. Now I make it for my family as well. Today you can learn how to cook it if you feel adventurous and want to try something new!

So what am I getting from the store?

Lamb is one of those things they don’t carry very often. So when you see one you’ve gotta grab it. You can always freeze it and pull it out to defrost when you’re ready to have it. It’s typically in the section with the other different cuts of meat like veal. I typically see lamb chops and lamb shanks more often than legs. Both of those are equally yummy but not what we’re doing today. You want somewhere around 4-5 pounds of lamb with the bone in it. While you’re at it pick up a jar of mint jelly to serve with it. If we were eating lamb there was always mint jelly too.

Ours came from the local Halal butcher in town. They typically have very good cuts of meat for all things beef, lamb, goat, and chicken. The one we go to does not carry pork as they are Muslim and do not eat or handle pork. A Halal butcher is like your regular butcher however they prepare meat in the Muslim tradition. After we picked up our lamb my daughter came home telling Daddy she wanted a goat. Which he’s been trying to talk me into getting goats for a while and my father-in-law wants us to get the ones that faint. Yes it’s a thing. Go to youtube and search for fainting goats. Very hilarious but I’m not a fan of goats.

Always check your pan before the day of

You are going to cook your leg of lamb in a roasting pan uncovered. I have an old blue roasting pan that my Momma gave me so long ago that she forgot she gave it to me. You need to check and make sure the leg you bought will fit in your roasting pan. The leg we got was much longer and not as thick as I was used to. It did not fit in my pan!!! Thankfully it fit in my turkey pan so crisis averted for now.

The longest 2 1/2 hours smelling it cook

My leg of lamb was almost 4.5 pounds. Lamb needs to cook for 30 minutes per pound so 2 1/2 hours is how long it will be in the oven. This is for a well done leg of lamb. If you prefer lamb more on the rare side then you will need to cook it not as long per pound. We prefer our lamb around here well done. Not dried out done but fully cooked. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. When it comes to temperature put that pan in the oven and get ready for potatoes!

The next best part is potatoes!

My second favorite part of lamb is the potatoes! Small potatoes can be sliced in half and large ones in sixths. I went a bit overboard washing potatoes. Depending on their size you want 1-2 potatoes per person. I was dreaming of yummy leftover potato goodness when I washed my potatoes.

Typically you add your potatoes when there is some grease at the bottom of the pan to cook them on. However lamb is very lean and sometimes you don’t get much grease. The potatoes need to cook a couple hours so add them in even if there isn’t any grease yet. If your lamb is not giving up that grease prick some of the fat you can see with a fork and it will come out. Yes I said stick them in the grease. That’s what makes them so good! Turn your potatoes over every 15-20 minutes so all sides get coated in the grease.

Normally this is where you would see progression pictures of my yummy looking potatoes. Unfortunately this is not one of the times where everything went as it should have.

2 1/2 hours later the timer goes off!

Pull the pan out and take the lamb out of the pan. Remove the potatoes and put them in a shallow baking dish. I have this nifty measuring cup with a spout that goes all the way to the bottom. This is only used in making gravy. It allows you to pour the grease off the top of the juices you collect from roasting meat. Pour out the juices from your roasting pan and let them sit a minute. Once they have separated pour the grease in with the potatoes. BUT WAIT! Before you do make sure you still have plenty of liquid left to use for gravy. If you did not get enough juices you may have to pour most of the grease back in the roasting pan to use for gravy. Put the potatoes in to cook the 15-20 minutes it takes you to make up the gravy.

Now for the gravy

You will need 4-6 heaping table spoons of flour and 3 1/4 cup of water. This is a recipe I learned to make from my Daddy. When Daddy cooks he tends to just throw things together as he always has. So while this says table spoons it is not a tablespoon measure. It is the spoon you would put on the table when you set the table for dinner; if you still do that. So no leveling involved here. You want those table spoons heaping with flour and not perfectly measured out.

Whisk the flour and water together until it is smooth. If it looks too thin you can add some more flour to it. Put the roasting pan so it is on two of the oven eyes, set the temperature to medium to medium-high, and add the juices back in. Carefully mix the flour/water mixture in with the lamb juices. So why do we need to use the roasting pan? It is especially important with this recipes because you want any leftover juices in the pan and baked on lamb to help flavor your gravy. Take the spoon you are going to stir it up with and scrape anything stuck on the roasting pan off so it mixes in with the gravy and start stirring.

Just keep stirring… and stirring… and stirring

You’re going to keep stirring for far longer than you think you should. The moment you think you can stop stirring is when it will stick horribly. So resist the urge to do something else and call for help if something else needs to be done. You want that gravy nice and thick so it slides off the spoon but doesn’t run off it. This is probably the best gravy I have ever made as far as consistency.

Now that the gravy is done, if 15 minutes has passed by then pull those potatoes out of the oven and you’re ready to eat!

But wait a minute this isn’t going to be a perfect post

Because sometimes you can do everything right and it still doesn’t work like it ought to. So let’s look at my picture below.

No that’s not a discoloration of the pottery; that’s red juices.

Yes I did say we were going to cook this leg of lamb to well done. There should be no red juices. I’m not sure why the juices were still coming out red. When I cut into my leg the meat looked perfectly done. And it was everywhere I carved it up.

Momma and Daddy are on call always!

I do not pretend to have arrived in this world of cooking/baking. When I run in to trouble I try to figure it out on my own first and then I either text or call home. Just depends how much of a panic I’m in. This is one time I text them from start to finish because it just wasn’t doing what I was used to seeing.

Lessons learned this time around

1. Sometimes you will have to skin the lamb
2. Poke holes in the fatty areas of the lamb to get grease out sooner
3. It’s ok to call for help; always!
4. Sometimes you can do everything right and it just doesn’t work

I learned today that sometimes my Daddy skins the leg of lamb! Who would’ve thought? I just assumed it was always good to go when you bought it. But that’s not the case. Look at this picture below.

Do you notice how where I cut looks like normal textured meat yet everywhere else is smooth? It’s too picture perfect. There’s skin that needs to be removed to help it cook better. Now we both know.

I didn’t take pictures of my potatoes as they cooked because they didn’t look right

After about an hour of little to no juices I started poking holes in the meat. And out it poured! So next time if there’s no grease after 30 minutes I’m going to poke some holes in fatty areas and see what I get. If I had skinned it I don’t think I would have had a problem with this but I might have. Also if it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t. Do NOT hesitate to ask for help! That’s what family and friends are for. I’m 38 years old now and I still text or call my parents and ask what am I doing wrong with this recipe. Sometimes you just need another set of eyes. Message me if you want, I’ll gladly help and not think less of you for it.

Sometimes it just doesn’t work

And it didn’t. It was yummy but oh so disappointing. It smelled amazing in my house but the meat was tough. Sometimes you just get tough meat. This leg would’ve done much better with the meat cut off the bone and slow cooked in the crockpot. Slow cooked for a loooooong time. It was just tough. So don’t worry if you don’t get it right every time. Neither do we. Sometimes it just doesn’t do what you want and that’s ok. Try again next time. The best cooks are the ones who mess it up horribly, learn from their mistakes, and try again and again and again.