Whole lamb in Egg

irishrog

Cooked 2 whole lambs for a party at the weekend, one in a fire pit in the ground, and I in the egg.
The 2 lambs were about the same size 36 pounds and 37 pounds.

Stuffed the pit lamb with 5 chickens,

and cooked in a fire pit


for 16 hours, until fall off the bone cooked

Curled the egg lamb into a ball, and tied the legs together to keep it in shape

I wanted to put in the plate setter and raise the lamb to protect the meat, but it was too big, so I cooked direct on the grid, direct heat, for 2 and half hours.

Turning after each hour

Both lambs came out beautiful


but everybody agreed that the egged lamb was much tastier, and the proof was in the amount left from each lamb.
Overall agreat party, here are just a few of the participants
.
Greetings from Ireland, Roger

NoVA Bill

What a wonderful set of pics and cook. Very informative for me. Thanks for sharing.

Cooking on the egg has got to be easier on your back :laugh:

irishrog

Bill, lots of things are easier on your back!!!

mad max beyond eggdome

roger. ...great looking cook and pics!!!! .. . i can get a whole lamb around my area pretty easy (northern virginia) as we have a bunch of hallel markets. .. couple of questions for you

what temps did you run the egg at? ...2 1/2 seems like a nice fast cook for 36 pounds. ..

did you break the backbone or something to make it fit? . ..

how did you "treat" the lamb? rubs/marinade/etc? ...

btw. .. i know one way to make it fit in a large with plate setter ... .saw a guy do it with a whole pig last year in atlanta . ..pull the fire ring out, put the plate setter right on top of the firebox. .. and the set the lamb on a v-rack right on the plate setter down in there. . . should fit nicely that way. . .

lowercasebill

wow, what a feas,t looks like it was a great time with great food

loco_engr

What a great post from across the pond!

Thanks for sharing.

Photo Egg

Very cool post.
Thank you.
darian

Florida Grillin Girl

Wow, great cook. Thanks so much for sharing it with us.

Faith
Tampa

cookn biker

Roger, great set of pics and what a feast for the party!!
Looks like you did not have the fire ring in the egg. Is this so? Beautiful color.

Essex County

Fantastic! I've gotten to cook whole lamb on a spit before but the pit cook...the chickens...wow! I'm also impressed that you could fit a whole lamb on (a brand new?) large BGE. Thanks for sharing.

mcdraw

Roger,

Great pictures and nice thatched roof. Can you just throw another one on the egg saturday and I'll swing by Sunday morning to bring some up to Donegal?

irishrog

Hi Max, cooked the lamb at 300 all the way. Rubbed 1 side with a tandoori rub, and left the other side natural, for the more delicate pallets.
I split the back bone just above the hips, and just below the shoulders, and just pushed it into shape. I also split the flank to make it easier to fold into shape.
used plum wood chunks for light smoke, which worked great.

Doug in Eggmonton

Man that is two great looking cooks. Thats my Easter plan then, whole lamb in egg.

Doug

Gator Bait

 
Great looking lamb Roger, thanks for sharing. I don't have the experience others do around here but I was trying to think of a way to get a pizza stone in there for your indirect heat in the egg with out adding the elevation of the plate setter. Just a thought.

Gator

 

irishrog

The base was new, first cook, as my old base had developed a crack, but the rest of the egg is about 8 years old, and very well used.

irishrog

I had the fire ring in and filled the lump just above the top of the bowl. Cooked the lamd on the grid in standard position.

irishrog

I'll use a chunk of turf to give it a real smokey flavour. Dont leave it until Sunday, I wil be gone to Spain for some sunshine

irishrog

I could put a pizza stone on the grid, but the lamb sitting on the stone would scorch from the conducted heat. This was my issue with the plate setter, I could get the lamb to sit on it, but I couldnt raise it off the stone to prevent the scorching. It worked great with the direct heat, and on hind sight was probably a better option.

mcdraw

Enjoy the sun!

Little Steven

Roger,

Just briliant!

Steve

James MB

Excellent looking cooks - I bet you enjoyed it!
It's surprising how you managed to fit it on, well done.
Lamb is my out and out favourite over fire.

mojo

Just two words for this ... AWE SOME!!

How did the chickens turn out, and did you manage to stuff any into the Egged lamb? I would assume not due to space concerns.

Brilliant cook!

irishrog

I didnt put anything into the egged lamb except whole bulbs of garlic, and sprigs of rosemary, but there would have been room for a chicken or 2 in there. Probably a duck would have been best, as it would have basted the lamb from the inside.

GirlyEgg

OMG! I LOVE LAMB!!! I've been wondering how to possibly do a whole one... next time, can you do a video of how you wrapped it? I'd love to figure it out and wow the friends! Nice job!

Big'un

Ah, they both look so good! If you ever get on this side of the sphere, I'd be happy to host a party for you!

Big'un

You could always hang an upside down foil tent attached to the bottom of the grid. It would still deflect most of the heat and stop the grease from fouling the coals. Just my 2 cents.

Misippi Egger

Great pics. There is no way everybody could not have had a great time!

irishrog

Hi Lynn, the lamb in the egg was very easy. I split the back just above the legs, and just below the shoulders. to do this I used a boning knife and from the outside cut the membrane between 2 vertabrea, which gave enough leway for the back to move. I then pushed the neck around between the legs, and tied the legs together, so that the legs were around the neck, and this kept the shape.
The lamb in the pit was a bigger job. I first wrapped the whole animal in cooking foil. I then wrapped it in empty peanut sacks, and then wrapped it in chicken wire to keep everything together. I soaked the sacks in water before putting the whole thing in the fire pit. The water kept the temperature down while there was strong heat in the fire, and stopped the sacks from burning.
The pit had about 12 inched of wood embers built up over 4 hours of burning. We put some soil on top of the embers, and then put in a sheet of metal, and then put the parcelled up lamb on top of the sheet, and covered the whole lot with the remaining soil. The hole was about 4 feet deep so there was a considerable amount of labour involved. Even to get the thing out at the end involved 20 minutes digging, so it was quite an experience.
Overall, cooking the lamb in the egg was much easier, and as I said earlier gave a much better end product

irishrog

I look forward to that. I hope in the next year or 2, to organise a trip to America to take in 2 or 3 eggfests, and see a little of your wonderful country during the same trip.
You never know, it will happen, but not sure when.