This is going to be our Easter dinner. We got a 12 lb leg of lamb - that's just about everything from the ankle to the shoulder blade (or is it the hip?) This will be the inaugural cook on my new 26 and we'll be following the technique described by Steve Raichlen for Leg of Lamb Provencal. In addition I plan to baste using the recipe in this thread. Unlike Raichlen however I'll be using charcoal instead of a gas grill.
Weather is sunny and windy at about 15 mph. Temperature at the moment is 62°F.
I prepared the lamb as described by making slits in which I could stuff garlic, fresh rosemary or Kalamata olive slices. (I found that needle nose cooking pliers are good for inserting the rosemary.)
I put a drip pan on one side of the charcoal grate and dumped lit coals on the other. Over that portion of the fire I plan to grill some veggies later in the cook. When the ET-73 hanging from the lid vent registered 400°, I put the meat on (over the drip pan.) I also added some chunks of cherry, walnut and oak for smoking wood. I also closed the bottom vent to about 1/2 coverage. Temp soon pegged the ET-73 (max 410°F) and I cut it back a little more by closing the bottom vent a bit more. 15 minutes after closing it up it is reading 377° and that seems good.
| time | temp | comment |
| 2:05 PM | 400°/? (cooker/meat) | Meat on! |
| 2:37 | 352°/? | Opened bottom vent a bit more. |
| 2:56 | 357°/61° | Opened bottom vent a bit more. |
| 3:22 | 352°/80° | Added more lump and some hickory. |
| 4:13 | 336°/118° | Temp had risen up to about 390° after last reading and was drifting down again. I added more smoking wood and stirred the coals a bit. |
| 4:50 | 340°/139° | Meat off and resting. fire stoked a bit for veggies. |
Results: the meat was very good - no great surprise - as were the vegetables. I probably could have taken it off a little sooner. I was shooting for medium rare and it seems more like medium. I could probably do with about half the baste as well. Plenty of that left over.
The grate is a cast iron grate from my Lodge Sportsmen. I think I'll get better grill marks with that.
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