A while ago, I was contacted, along with several other bloggers, to review some American lamb, thanks to the American Lamb Board (http://www.americanlambboard.org). They are the premier nonprofit promoter of American-raised lamb.
I promised to review the lamb, and I am finally getting to it! I know several others have already reviewed it, and I’ll have trackbacks listed to some of them, too. But on with the review!
The kit arrived well packaged and still good and cold. The kit included basically a 6-8 lb. boneless leg of lamb, a probe thermometer and dried herbs from a great company, Penzey’s (one of my personally preferred spice sources). It was nicely packaged, and it also included a great write up on American lamb, along with a variety of serving ideas.
I unpackaged everything, and I took the lamb out of the cryovac. I put just some kosher salt, pepper, and the included rosemary and oregano on the top part of the leg of lamb (the other side had a pretty good fat cap, so I didn’t season that, really). As the lamb was waiting, I started about half a chimney of lump charcoal, and put about twice that much, split into two parts, on each side of the grill, along with a small log of cherry wood on one side. I put the lit coals on top of the unlit, setting an indirect fire that would burn for at least a little while.
I oiled the grate, and then I put the lamb right between the two fire piles and closed the lid. While I was letting the lamb cook (this took about 40 minutes the way I was cooking it), my wife was also making tomato pie as a side dish for the lamb.
Once the lamb reached about 120 degrees F, I moved the grate directly over one side of the fire and directly grilled the lamb to get a nice crust on the lamb, then back between the fires until it got to about 138. At that point, I removed the lamb, putting foil loosely over it for about 10 minutes or so to let it rest.
I sliced the lamb in generously thick slices. It came out a really nice medium rare and sliced easily. As I was serving it, I couldn’t resist trying it.
The verdict is that this is about as good of a leg of lamb as I’ve had anywhere. There wasn’t the musty, gamey taste that I’ve had with local lamb before. After having this, I won’t hesitate to try any American lamb cuts in the future! The tomato pie went great with the lamb.
I’d pair this with a good Syrah, I think, but any red that can stand up to a big slice of meat would work. Do yourself a favor and give American Lamb a try.
I’ve been reading some blogs about the bloggers that posted about the American Lamb Board.
If it’s proven that poor practices have been used for raising lambs, that’s one thing, but attacking the ALB and the ad agency that promoted the ALB promo for making profit doesn’t make sense to me. We all do our work to make a profit; doing anything else makes us bankrupt. I consult for a grocery store chain; I charge money so that I make income greater than my expenses. To me, that’s making a profit on my time and work. If I do personal cheffing, vending, etc., I don’t plan on doing it to just come out even or lose money; it has to be worth my time to do it.
There are things I do in my life with no monetary reward attached; I get rewarded in personal satisfaction or other ways, but if there’s no reward, I’m not likely to do it.