As my Aunt-in-law (if that is such a term) invited us over for Easter Sunday I had to get my Easter cook in on Saturday. I started with a leg of lamb which I attempted to butterfly (and think I did ok with!). Once butterflied I cut the joint in half, kind of, but it sort of split into large chunks as opposed to two nice, neat butterfly halves (this was remedied by tying them up with string to make a nice, neat, cohesive joint of meat).
Rubs: A UK take on longstanding American principles. I love the American Style of BBQ but I'm not quite sold on the hardline KCBS doctrine requiring the pursuit of perfection in only four types of meat and flavours focussed on pleasing the 'set' palate of the judges. However, I will attest to the fact that the meat that comes from KCBS competitions teams is some of the finest grub available. So this weekend I took the basic principles behind American style dry rubs (salt, sugar and herbs/ spices) and low and slow cooking but tweaked it slightly. I used salt (of a sort), sugar and complementary herbs and spices to create dry rubs in a similar style as the rubs I've used on brisket, pork butts etc. As this was an experiment (as every cooking experience is to an extent) I dry rubbed one half of the butterflied lamb leg in more traditional tasting English flavours (rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, mint, etc - see below for full list) and the other in more Indian flavours (Korma powder, tikka powder, tandoori powder, coriander powder, etc - see below again).
I've seen some pretty good recipes, techniques and tips around that I used as a guide for my cook including Kelly from Dreaming of the Good Life, GreatGrub.com for the temperatures, and AmazingRibs.com for some reverse sear advice. I cooked the two lamb joints for about 3hrs at between 225-250F using a hint of cherry wood smoke (I took them to 120F internal temp, which continued to rise once wrapped), then wrapped them for about 15mins to allow me to set up for direct grilling and seared them off for about 2-3mins on each side which got the internal temp up to the desired 130-140F for medium-rare lamb. You can see fairly well from the photos the lovely pink (but not red) colour of the meat that had a consistent colour throughout.
The result of this was two halves of lamb awesomeness, echoed loudly by the guests. I served them with a simple salad on wholemeal tortillas (yes, they weren't homemade but as easy as this would have been I decided to spend the time on a country walk with my siblings and son visiting the pub, then drinking beer in the garden, not preparing flatbreads...it was a holiday for me too, right?) with homemade tzatziki (diced cucumber, yoghurt, lemon juice and mint sauce) and whatever chutneys people wanted from the fridge. My in-laws, not known for their exotic taste in food, actually found the Indian BBQ flavour preferable to the more traditional English flavours which surprised me, and encouraged me for the future (maybe I've finally broken in their palate after years of effort!).
English BBQ Lamb Dry Rub
- Light brown sugar (25% of the overall mixture)
- Celery salt and table salt (25% of the overall mixture)
- Mint (25% of the overall mixture)
- Dried rosemary
- Thyme
- White pepper
- Mustard powder
- Lime powder
Indian BBQ Lamb Dry Rub
- Light brown sugar (25% of the overall mixture)
- Salt (25% of the overall mixture)
- Korma curry spice
- Tandoori curry spice
- Tikka curry spice
- Garlic powder
- Lime powder
- White pepper
- Coriander powder
