Flaming Lamb, sous-vide style

blind99

Lots of sous vide going on this weekend, here's mine.  I picked up a boneless leg of lamb yesterday and scored it up.  rubbed with dried mustard and rosemary, and into the sous vide at 131 for 24 hours.  idea was to tenderize it, then bring it up to 138 to take it to the medium side of medium rare.




after 5 hours at 138, it came out and got pasted with a mixture of rosemary, thyme, minced garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and a little mustard to thicken.  then, onto the egg, indirect at 400.  why did the temp drop to 200?  wait, that's a needle wrap.  rendering fat added serious fuel to the top of the plate setter.  who needs eyebrows?  @foghorn this is how hobos like me end up in the burn unit:



anyhow, a few minutes to brown up the crust and we got a nice lamb roast.  guests really liked it, but for me it was too tender.  



the juices from the bag got strained, thickened with a roux, and made a great gravy.  some red wine to go along with it all.  and back to work tomorrow.

stay warm out there
blind

theyolksonyou

Dayum. Lamb is not a big winner round here, but starting to work its way into the rotation.  

Eyebrows are are for sissies and muppets. 

JacksDad

How long did it take you to figure out how to make that gif? 

Foghorn

Great cook.  But yeah, that's why I don't sear my rib roasts any more. They always catch fire and I prefer the brown crust rather than that black crust that just tastes burned.  Of course, this was a sous vide so you had no crust and had to generate it quickly.

Great cook and video.

blind99

@theyolksonyou  chefsteps says sous vide takes the game-y-ness out of the lamb.  i like the flavor of lamb, but if you want it milder, maybe this would help.  

seriously i feel like this guy now

JacksDad said:

How long did it take you to figure out how to make that gif? 

takes about 5 seconds on giphy.com

blind99

Foghorn said:

Great cook.  But yeah, that's why I don't sear my rib roasts any more. They always catch fire and I prefer the brown crust rather than that black crust that just tastes burned.  Of course, this was a sous vide so you had no crust and had to generate it quickly.

Great cook and video.

i had no intention of searing this -- was just planning to let it brown, indirect, over the plate setter at 400 or so.  oops, flaming plate setter!  yeah, last time i seared a rib roast direct it was crazy flareup all over the place.

JustineCaseyFeldown

blind99 said:

@theyolksonyou  chefsteps says sous vide takes the game-y-ness out of the lamb.  i like the flavor of lamb, but if you want it milder, maybe this would help.  

seriously i feel like this guy now

JacksDad said:

How long did it take you to figure out how to make that gif? 

takes about 5 seconds on giphy.com

Lamb is not game. Therefore cannot be gamey

lamb tastes like lamb. 

"Gamey" is a word people use to describe meat that tastes the LEAST bit different than the mild corn fed crappy beef they are used to. 

Lamb, especially australian, is usually grass fed. And people don't know what that flavor is. So they say it is gamey. 

They are wrong

lamb tastes like lamb

if you want the meat to taste like chicken, buy chicken. Right?

butter from grass fed cows will have many of the same flavors. Eggs from free range chickens too

Legume

Your tone is kind of gamey tonight.

Toxarch

A few minutes at 1200 degrees? Sounds a little long to me.

Speaking of gamey, we did rack of lamb for Dec 23rd. My younger brother insisted I should only get American grain finished lamb because it tastes less gamey and not to get Australian lamb. I got Australian grass fed lamb and cooked to med-rare. Tasted like lamb and he said it wasn't gamey tasting. He watches too many cooking shows.

bgebrent

Awesome cook brother!!  Looks delicious!  Searing technique is intense 

YukonRon

Just as @theyolksonyou stated, Lamb is going to be a big part of our menu going forward.

Your cook, with the SV was astounding. Great job, and thank you, for the information, as you processed the cook with images. First rate as always. 

Got to tell you, while in Ireland we did a bone in Leg of Lamb, fresh off the emerald grass it was feeding on. We had a shiddy oven in the house we rented, and used hardly any seasonings at all, just a minute amount of salt and pepper, as we were made to promise before the butcher would sell it to us. It was delicious x infinity. I can only imagine how good it could have been if we had the egg with us to cook. The butcher (and the owner of the working farm where he raises his fare), told me not to season it at all, because apparently, by shear dumb luck, we were vacationing in the area that is world renown for the quality of mutton raised and butchered there, they call it the platinum triangle. He said the Mutton there was used as the barometer for the rest of the world. I believe him after cooking that leg.

Thank you for sharing.

blind99

@justinecaseyfeldown of course it can be gamey.  if it were game, it couldn't not be gamey, right? then the word gamey wouldn't be necessary, or exist.  i think.  damn words.  (actually i think lamb gets gamey because it gets pissed at being considered so docile, and it goes out and eats game to prove how tough it is.  shaun the sheep is a total bada$$.)

@bgebrent thanks!  @toxarch yeah, glad i saw it pretty quickly.  really didn't expect that.  stupid me :(

@yukonron thank you for the kind words.  that sounds like some excellent meat you had.  the best i've had recently was from lava lake farms.  they get it in our grocery in the late spring.  if you can find it, it would be worth trying.

JustineCaseyFeldown

I think 'gamey' is what we call anything different 

for lack of any other terms. 

blind99

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

I think 'gamey' is what we call anything different 

for lack of any other terms. 

i did some pheasant last fall.  one of my friends made a comment along the lines of "wow, it tastes like this bird actually used its wings!"  it was really delicious, and so different than the sad old birds i'm used to from the grocery store.

SmokeyPitt

Man that looks excellent. I'm just wondering how you managed to rescue it from the egg.  I'm picturing full welder gear:

fishlessman

it gets that stronger flavor as you approach medium and up and on reheats. also from where its sourced. been seeing alot lately from new zealand, its strong flavored, stronger than the australian stuff. american lamb tastes more like beef compared to those other two sources if you dont like a truly lamby grass fed flavor

tarheelmatt

Nice all around! I like lamb myself but it would be tough to break that into the starting lineup here. 

YukonRon

blind99 said:

@yukonron thank you for the kind words.  that sounds like some excellent meat you had.  the best i've had recently was from lava lake farms.  they get it in our grocery in the late spring.  if you can find it, it would be worth trying.

Will do

Toxarch

Cooking lamb past medium will definitely bring out the "gamey" flavor. Well done is how my sister-in-law wanted hers cooked. I was told that AFTER I was done cooking all of the racks to med-rare.

Little Steven

fishlessman said:

it gets that stronger flavor as you approach medium and up and on reheats. also from where its sourced. been seeing alot lately from new zealand, its strong flavored, stronger than the australian stuff. american lamb tastes more like beef compared to those other two sources if you dont like a truly lamby grass fed flavor

I agree, though I haven't had a lot of Australian lamb and I assume Canadian and US is similar. I've seen that in New Zealand they eat only grass and herbs and that here they supplement with grain.

blind99

tarheelmatt said:

Nice all around! I like lamb myself but it would be tough to break that into the starting lineup here. 

Give it a whirl. My kids eat it up and I don't think they're the most adventurous eaters by a long shot. Leftovers are going into pasta with lamb ragu which hopefully they will also like. 

johnnyp

Nice cook

tarheelmatt

blind99 said:

tarheelmatt said:

Nice all around! I like lamb myself but it would be tough to break that into the starting lineup here. 

Give it a whirl. My kids eat it up and I don't think they're the most adventurous eaters by a long shot. Leftovers are going into pasta with lamb ragu which hopefully they will also like. 

I like your leftover idea too! 

I'll have to try it sometime. I dig it, a lot. Worked with a Greek for 7 yrs.  Ate a lot of lamb and mutton.