Lamb cooked too quick?

[justpassingthru]

I know ever piece of meat is different, but has anybody seen this?

I’m smoking a bone-in leg of lamb, prepared last night with a rub of EVO, salt and pepper, garlic pieces embedded in meat, fresh rosemary and thyme sprigs and wrapped in plastic.

I prepared the GOSM, brought it up to 250° took the lamb straight from the fridge to smoker, the fridge temp is set at 38° (we use it to keep leftovers, brining and meat that has been prepared for smoking.

Went in the smoker at let’s say 40°, smoker is running at 250°, time is 6:33 AM, I inserted the Maverick meat probe and it’s already at 127° and it’s only been in the for a little over an hour! I was planning on taking it out at 135° and foiling to bring the temp to 140°.

Ambient temp is 84° and the smoker is in the shade, I took the temp with my Thermapen and it is the same as the Maverick, boiled some water and tested the Thermapen and it’s right on, set the Thermapen in the fridge, 38°.

I have cooked lots of these and they usually take 4 hours to cook at 250°.

This one is for a customer, I have to deliver at 11:30, I’m not worried about holding ‘til then, just the taste, it cooked too fast.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Gene

 

[rivet]

Hi Gene,

Can't help you with anything other than understanding: My wife and I love bone-in leg o' lamb and get it easily and very inexpensively arounde here. The one thing that has ALWAYS amazed me is how much faster they come to temp than the cookbooks I used to use, or online recipes suggested.

I'm talking half the time, easily. A whole bone-in leg roasted to medium rare takes about 2 hrs at 325 F here at home. That's easily half the time I've read anywhere to bring it to 160F.

So, just roll with it I guess, and keep that in mind for future planning.

 

[justpassingthru]

Thanks Rivet,

It's at 141°, the garlic isn't cooked and I sliced of a small piece and the taste is bland, what if I turn the temp down to 200°, think that might work?

Gene

 

[justpassingthru]

This is crazy, I've got some beef ribs on too and they are already at 137°!

Gene

 

[rivet]

I wouldn't turn down the heat that low, although you could. I just think that you want some sort of crustiness/dryness on the outside, rather than pure moistness, whcih I think 200 will give you. Not certain, just my cooking-intuition.

If you can, cook it as planned then just triple foil it and keep it warm till the customer is ready. Be aware that doing this it's gonna keep cooking a bit so plan for that too. That should take care of cooking the garlic through, though.

Good luck to you and keep us posted. Really interested in how this is turning out for you.

Hang in there!

 

[justpassingthru]

Ok, this is a first time for the Dino Bones, read up on cooking them and decided to go 2-2-1, I just finished foiling them.

I turned the temp down, but it hasn't stablized yet, I'l go with your advice and cook at 225°, all of the others haven't been crusty on the outside, the people here don't understand bark and equate it with being burnt.

The temp of the lamb is holding at 143°, what it I foiled it?

Or, take it out now and foil and hold until 11:30, I'll listen to your advice.

Don't you know this always happens when your trying to impress some one, if this customer likes the lamb it could open alot of doors, ...or just call it off and deliver another day, I'm tending to look at it like that, I really don't want to serve medicore lamb.

Gene

 

[rivet]

At 143 internal it is still very rare. Here, at 155 internal it is still red at the bone, not pink. At 160-165 it is pink at the bone and that's how Mrs Rivet and I like it.

At 143 you will be running warm blood when you cut it, which isn't bad, I've heard many people eat it that way. It's all in how you like it.

Given that, consider what your customer wants and give it to them. I'm thinking the temp may rise anywhere from 5 to 8 degrees after foiling and removing from heat and keeping it warm for a couple hours.

My opinion is you really can't have mediocre leg o' lamb!

It's all good, rare or otherwise as long as it is warm in the centre!

Hang in there Gene, you're gonna do okay!

 

[mballi3011]

man I cann't wait til I smoke my bone in lamb leg you guys are making it look easy and if it smokes that quick I could smoke it on a week day. Maybe I'll smok it for the wifes return from germany. Yes again germany.

 

[justpassingthru]

Rivet, Thanks for the advice and support.

It's cooked and delivered, I'll know Monday how they liked it.

I'm with you on the cooking temps, however because of the French influnce everyone eats their meat rare or medium, he ordered it medium, the cooking chart I have says medium for lamb is 130°, however, I cook beef, pork or lamb to 135° and the foiling takes it to 140°. past the temp to hopefully kill any nasties.

I turned the temp down to 225° and held it there until 11:00 AM, the meat temp stayed at 143° the whole time, so I'm breathing easy now that I know it reached the desired temp and stayed there several hours, we sliced off a couple of pieces, it was moist and delicious, close to the bone was medium, but that is what he wanted.

What I did wrong - as for how I think the lamb cooked differently, I used a new brand of lamb that I hadn't cooked before, it was defrosted instead of frozen, it was larger than the frozen by about 1 pound, that is why I chose it.

Second mistake and a good lesson learned, instead of using the garlic on hand I bought some fresh, what I had at home was old and kind of soft because of the humidity, I have always used it and had good results, the new was too fresh. Here is what I think happened, the older garlic melts and permeates the meat, I think the fresh garlic needed a higher temp to melt or even be cooked, after 4 1/2 hours it was still raw, we had to pick it out of the meat.

All in all it was a good lesson, explained to the customer that this one was on me and why, he understood, he is the mananger of the ACE Hardware store and is the one who sold me both of my smokers, we've given him lots of different kinds of Q to show him what the smokers are capable of producing, this was the first time he ordered something.

Now I want to go and get another fresh leg of lamb and cook it for us to learn how it cooks, the only problem is they will probably all be gone before I can go back to the store.

mballi, You gotta try a leg of lamb, it's awesome, like I said, normally it's about a 4 hour cook at 250°, I think the good Lord created garlic, rosemary and thmye just for lamb, try it, you'll like it and talk about points when the mrs comes back.

Everyone have a good weekend smoking, tomorrow it's chicken.

Gene

 

[beer-b-q]

Hope the customer likes it Gene...

Seems something always happens when it is a smoke to impress someone...

Keep us updated on what he says...


Got any pics of it?

 

[rivet]

hey Gene, good post. I'll just answer as we go through your points~

 

[justpassingthru]

Beer-B-Q, will do, sorry man, no pics, I was rotating the tires on our car and had to finish to deliver.

Rivet, that's it exactly! I had those old cloves of garlic with the green sprouts, I thought, it's ok for us, but I need new for this customer.

That is a very important piece of information that we all need to know and remember, I zoned, ...when they start to sprout like that I smoke them to make garlic butter and they are wonderful.

Unabashed carnivore..., not really, I don't like my meat to moo, oink, cluck or flop around on my plate, ...however, I have gone from well done to medium-medium well since living here.

Thanks again,

Gene