Hey All:
So for Jewish Christmas (a good excuse to get together with family and watch movies), I decided to make a leg of lamb that i couldn't resist in the supermarket. I got a "semi-boned" variety, though the femur was still in it, so I don't know what that means. I consulted a few recipes and then combined them together. First I took a paring knife and made some holes in the meat, which I punctured with a cinnamon stick, a spring of thyme, and a rosemary twig. I then made a rub out of whatever my in-laws had in the cabinet: salt, pepper, chilli flakes, ground cinnamon, cumin, and maybe one or two other spices that I don't recall right now. I seared it, but going low and slow on the stove in order to render off some of the fat cap. Then I put it on top of a roughly chopped mirepoix with a head of garlic for good measure, threw in a cup of red wine and put it in the oven at 225.
All of the recipes I consulted said that it should be done to between 135-145 degrees in an hour and half. After an hour and a half mine was barely cracking 105 so I turned the oven to convection to speed things along. It took 2 hours until it reached 130 and 2.5 until I pulled it at the 140 mark. While it rested I used the roasting juices to make an amazing sauce/gravy. The result was one of the most delicious pieces of meat I have ever cooked and two (so far) of the best meals I have ever eaten. In fact, if anyone wants a leg of lamb recipe, go ahead and take this one down because it was simple to make and absolutely delicious.
That said, I have two questions:
First, is that long of a cook time normal for this meat? Was I lied to by the recipes? Some were bone-out legs but most of the ones I consulted accounted for the bone. I felt bad not serving lunch until 2p!
Second, when I pulled the meat it was slightly more well-done than I had hoped. It was juicy and delicious, but I was hoping to keep it slightly pink, around a medium or mid-well. It was a perfect well done instead (and I know some of you will say there is no such thing, but the mid-easterners convinced me that perfectly well done is not a contradiction in terms). I wasn't using my own thermometer, but I was definitely getting a good amount of blood coming out from the probe site when it was registering 120-130. When do you guys like to pull your lamb? Can you develop a feel for it the same way that you can with steaks and poultry?
I don't know when the next time I'll have an excuse to cook a leg of lamb is, but I wanted to check and see what you guys think.