Leg of Lamb Steak Failure

NecessaryIndulg

One of my local butchers carries a leg of lamb steak. It looks beautiful and sounds beautiful, so I decided to give it a shot. 

I asked him how he'd cook it since I've always cooked leg of lamb low and slow. He assured me that I should cook it like a beef steak. I didn't believe him, so I went home to do a little research. Sure enough, everything I read said to cook it for a few minutes on each side and cook to medium rare.

I made a rosemary / garlic paste and let it marinade for a couple of hours. I then cooked it to a gorgeous medium rare, poured a glass of wine, and dug in.

A W F U L!

Tough, and awful.
Have any of you cooked a leg of lamb steak? 

My dinner last night was wine and brownies. So, not a complete loss.

Canugghead

Thanks for sharing, they look amazing though!
edit: SV then sear next time perhaps?

DoubleEgger

@bgebrent is the lamb king around here. Perhaps he can offer assistance. 

SciAggie

This post made me laugh. We should all post our fails more often; I know I have them. To your question, I've never cooked a leg of lamb steak. I'll be curious to hear other's responses though; I would think what you did should have yielded a good result. If the meat is medium rare I wouldn't think it would make any difference if it came from a whole leg or a steak cut. IT is IT right? It shouldn't matter how you get there. Maybe it was the quality of the meat itself but how would you know?

Skiddymarker

My Mom was a great fan of all things lamb, me not so much. She always braised lamb steaks due to the toughness of the meat. I think you may have had a tour down the garden path from your butcher. 
Wonder if you could treat like a beef round steak? Pre-sear, drop in the SV for 18 to 24 hours to improve the texture and then finish sear for plating. As always, your less than tasty lamb steaks look awesome. 

pgprescott

No leg of lamb steak here, but I've definitely had wine and brownies. That was great, I think. It's kind of a hazy memory. 

fishlessman

i cut leg of lamb into kabobs and never had that problem, maybe the butcher cut it more with the grain than against. you want to lean more rare than toward medium with med/rare lamb, and cut that fat off lamb fat is gross

Florida Grillin Girl

In what way were they awful? The sure look like they would be good. 

Is it leg of lamb sliced? I have made that before and here is my post on it. 
http://www.greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=112&func=view&catid=1&id=1391018#1391018

I will say that I prefer Australian or New Zealand lamb to American lamb.

kaybee

Maybe try a reverse sear approach to give them longer to cook and hopefully get more tender? They look thick enough to take a reverse sear.

Carolina Q

I've only cooked (butterflied) Australian leg of lamb twice. Followed this recipe, though it didn't take as long to get to temp as they say it does. Excellent results. Sounds like you did pretty much the same thing though.

I'd go back to the butcher and tell him you want a freebie... one that's EDIBLE this time.

Or, just have another glass of wine?  

NecessaryIndulg

Thanks, y'all!  I think from now on I'll stick to Rack of Lamb and Lamb Chops.

And: brownies and wine.

@Florida Grillin Girl that looks/sounds great! My steaks were tough-- I hated the texture.

John, god love him, ate every bite of his steak. 

lousubcap

Given your skill set and the cook, I would put this squarely on the lamb as others have said.  Never have cooked a leg of lamb steak but have done many leg's of lamb.  FWIW-

Theophan

I'm not sure whether I've cooked leg of lamb sliced into steaks, but one of my very favorite lamb dishes is butterflied leg of lamb, marinated in red wine, herbs, onions, carrots, etc., and cooked like a thick beef steak, so it's crusty on the outside and medium rare on the inside.  LOVE that stuff!  It's not sliced the same way yours was, but it's the same cut of meat, and not cooked low and slow, but hot and fast, like a steak.  I didn't do reverse sear back then (haven't made it in a long time -- my wife hates lamb, so I don't make it often), and didn't have a BGE, but I'd guess I probably cooked it over something similar to 350° direct in a Weber kettle grill, cooking it medium rare (I'd reverse sear it, if I made it these days).  It was wonderful, and I don't understand why slicing the same piece of meat into steaks would have made it tough.

I'm sorry -- it's a mystery to me.  I would easily imagine well-done lamb leg might be tough cooked hot and fast, but you cooked it medium rare, so I don't understand it.

bgebrent

lousubcap said:

Given your skill set and the cook, I would put this squarely on the lamb as others have said.  Never have cooked a leg of lamb steak but have done many leg's of lamb.  FWIW-

I'm with Cap here Kristi.  I think you got some bad lamb.  See what your butcher says.  Sorry it didn't turn out well for you.

blind99

I did something last year that was similar - I think it was labeled as a shoulder steak.  Flavor was excellent but definitely tough.  If I do it again I'll use the sous vide tenderizer - 24-30 hours in a 132 degree bath, then a sear.

Those steaks up there look awesome.  Bummer they didn't cooperate!

blind99

Found it - my grocer carried a bunch of Lava Lake Farms products last year.  Awesome stuff.  Now I want to try the shoulder steak again and do it justice.

https://www.lavalakelamb.com/product/lamb-shoulder-steaks/

Photo Egg

But the photo is still a winner...
A friend of mine is going to cook at his first Eggfest next weekend. He had so many questions I just did not know what to do. So I sent him your web page link to your Eggfest photos. He said it gave him a great feel of what to expect and many ideas on things to cook.

JRWhitee

I have never tried lamb steaks and probably wont! Oh well Kristi you cant win them all.

Photo Egg

Florida Grillin Girl said:

In what way were they awful? The sure look like they would be good. 

Is it leg of lamb sliced? I have made that before and here is my post on it. 
http://www.greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=112&func=view&catid=1&id=1391018#1391018

I will say that I prefer Australian or New Zealand lamb to American lamb.

Besides your awesome skills, the nice cross cut piece you cooked might be the way to go.

SciAggie

Florida Grillin Girl said:

I will say that I prefer Australian or New Zealand lamb to American lamb.

How are they different? The reason I ask is I don't have a refined enough palate to discern the difference between Angus or Hereford beef anymore than different breeds of chickens. Is it the difference between grass fed and feed lot beef? I see a difference there. I ask seriously because I hear this sort of statement often I have no frame of reference to understand how they are different enough to know where the meat originated. I'm genuinely curious.

Toxarch

SciAggie said:

Florida Grillin Girl said:

I will say that I prefer Australian or New Zealand lamb to American lamb.

How are they different? The reason I ask is I don't have a refined enough palate to discern the difference between Angus or Hereford beef anymore than different breeds of chickens. Is it the difference between grass fed and feed lot beef? I see a difference there. I ask seriously because I hear this sort of statement often I have no frame of reference to understand how they are different enough to know where the meat originated. I'm genuinely curious.

Australian and NZ lamb are usually grass fed. They will have more of a wild "gamey" taste to them. Nothing wrong with that as long as you don't cook it past Medium as that's when the gamey flavor starts to come out more. When cooking rack of lamb, I try to stick to Medium-Rare or more towards the Rare side of that.

American lamb is usually grain finished to try to fatten it up a bit. Some think the gamey taste has been bred out of the American lamb because it has a different taste to it. I'll eat it, but to me it doesn't really taste like lamb. You can cook American lamb a little longer.

My mom does a lamb curry with lamb chops. She always overcooks it. It comes out soft like an overcooked brisket. It's good but thought it might be better without overcooking the meat so I had her stop before getting to medium. Bad idea. The meat came out tough and wasn't as good. I told her to go back to overcooking it.

Theophan

Toxarch said:

... My mom does a lamb curry with lamb chops. She always overcooks it. It comes out soft like an overcooked brisket. It's good but thought it might be better without overcooking the meat so I had her stop before getting to medium. Bad idea. The meat came out tough and wasn't as good. I told her to go back to overcooking it.

For a curry, I'd think long, slow braising would be good, but I've never tried it with medium rare.

My mom used to broil lamb chops till they were well done!  I grew up with them, and liked them, actually.  But then when I started cooking, myself, and made some medium-rare lamb, wow, that's what I prefer, most of the time.

Toxarch said:

... Some think the gamey taste has been bred out of the American lamb because it has a different taste to it. I'll eat it, but to me it doesn't really taste like lamb.

I'm with you!  I love the taste of lamb, have often thought I'd be interested to try mutton, sometime, which I gather has a much stronger flavor than lamb, but I've never seen any in the stores.  I think somewhere in the South, Kentucky, maybe, they do some sort of mutton BBQ, and I'd really like to try that!

bgebrent

Theophan said:

Toxarch said:

... My mom does a lamb curry with lamb chops. She always overcooks it. It comes out soft like an overcooked brisket. It's good but thought it might be better without overcooking the meat so I had her stop before getting to medium. Bad idea. The meat came out tough and wasn't as good. I told her to go back to overcooking it.

For a curry, I'd think long, slow braising would be good, but I've never tried it with medium rare.

My mom used to broil lamb chops till they were well done!  I grew up with them, and liked them, actually.  But then when I started cooking, myself, and made some medium-rare lamb, wow, that's what I prefer, most of the time.

Toxarch said:

... Some think the gamey taste has been bred out of the American lamb because it has a different taste to it. I'll eat it, but to me it doesn't really taste like lamb.

I'm with you!  I love the taste of lamb, have often thought I'd be interested to try mutton, sometime, which I gather has a much stronger flavor than lamb, but I've never seen any in the stores.  I think somewhere in the South, Kentucky, maybe, they do some sort of mutton BBQ, and I'd really like to try that!

A little background @Theophan.

https://www.thespruce.com/owensboro-mutton-barbecue-331595

NecessaryIndulg

Photo Egg said:

A friend of mine is going to cook at his first Eggfest next weekend. He had so many questions I just did not know what to do. So I sent him your web page link to your Eggfest photos. He said it gave him a great feel of what to expect and many ideas on things to cook.

Cool, thank you!  After next weekend, he'll be hooked for life!  

NecessaryIndulg

JRWhitee said:

I have never tried lamb steaks and probably wont! Oh well Kristi you cant win them all.

Exactly.   I call them One and Done Meals -- meaning one bite and I move on to something better like chocolate &/or cheese. Life is too short!

Acn

NecessaryIndulg said:

John, god love him, ate every bite of his steak. 

That's a man who knows where his bread is buttered!

Florida Grillin Girl

@SciAggie - I agree with what @Toxarch said regarding lamb. The American lamb just doesn't have that "lamby" taste that Australian and New Zealand lamb has, which I happen to like. I can only assume it is due to being fed a grain diet.

SciAggie

@Florida Grillin Girl Thanks for the feedback. I googled that question today and got a variety of answers so I appreciate your first hand knowledge. I only have experience with locally acquired lamb.

thetrim

NecessaryIndulg said:

JRWhitee said:

I have never tried lamb steaks and probably wont! Oh well Kristi you cant win them all.

Exactly.   I call them One and Done Meals -- meaning one bite and I move on to something better like chocolate &/or cheese. Life is too short!

That's one that would go in my dog's dish.  She loves it all! 

Theophan

bgebrent said:

A little background @Theophan.

https://www.thespruce.com/owensboro-mutton-barbecue-331595

THANKS for the link!  It's more than 8h away from me, don't know if I'll get there, but I saved the info just in case.  I'd REALLY like to try smoked mutton.

bgebrent

I lived in KY for more than 12 years a while back and I've not had it myself.  I love lamb and prolly would love this dish.  Its on my to do next time Im up there.  I found the history interesting.  I'll be through there this year.  I'll let you know.