I cooked a leg of lamb in the crockpot today. It was one I saw in the grocery store and couldn't resist. I began by thawing it in the microwave. It was boned, which solves one big problem right away, and filleted where the bone was taken out. All of the outside fat was around the good meat, and the skin was on the outside just like the leg would have been if there were a bone inside. I applied seasonings to the outside, my first error. I should have just opened it up and put the seasonings in the center and pressed them into the meat. I wanted to roast it, but I don't much like roasted potatoes, so I put 16 ounces of water in the crock, then put in the potatoes. I wanted 5 evenly matched potatoes so used the talking kitchen scale that Blind Mice Mart sells. I put it on grams and began weighing potatoes from my bag. I found five in a 15 gram range, between 190 grams and 205 grams. I washed them and put them in the crock and the water I had put in first rose to just below the top of the potatoes. The potatoes were shaped just right to fill the space. Now I had a bed for the leg of lamb. Its weight after thawing was 2 pounds 8 ounces, or 2 and a half pounds. I removed it from its packaging onto a plate. I mixed the seasonings together and pressed them all over the leg. As I said, it would have worked better to press them to the inside of the leg. At this point I maybe should have trimmed some of the fat off but didn't realize how much was there. I don't know how easy this would have been with the meat raw. Maybe not so easy. I laid the leg in the crock just above the water line, turned it on high for an hour, then to low for the cooking for the next few hours. I turned off the pot and took the temperature of the meat. It wasn't quite done, so I flipped it over so the other side would get the benefit of the steam, and let it cook on low for two more hours. I turned off the pot and let it sit with the lid off for 20 minutes, then took everything out. The meat was wonderful, but it took some time to get all the fat off. There was half a pound of fat and skin. I ate what I wanted and put the rest in the refrigerator to use in at least two more meals, maybe 3. I stored the potatoes in the refrigerator as well, and found room for the crock with its lid on so tomorrow I can remove the fat that settled into the pot as the meat cooked. I don't know if the broth will be something I will want to use or if it will get tossed as well. At any rate it won't end up down my sink to clog the drain pipes. I am sure there will be other lamb roasts in my future, be it leg, shoulder, or whatever. Maybe next time I will season it and cook it in a cooking bag without adding water except for that which stays on the meat when I rinse it so the seasonings stick to the surface. If I want vegetables I can cook them separately or in a different way.
Pamela Fairchild <pamelafairch...@comcast.net> _______________________________________________ Cookinginthedark mailing list Cookinginthedark@acbradio.org http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark
