Proud Mary

Consider this a cautionary tale. I tried something new recently. No, not Starbucks coffee or watching Monday Night Football with the sound on. No, I tried smoking a leg of lamb. It sucked.

I found a recipe online at Fearless Kitchen (I love that name) for Roasted Lamb with Pomegranate. And I've cooked lamb on the grill plenty of times. Usually just a lamb loin chop marinated in a little red wine with peppercorns and some garlic powder or Italian seasonings if I'm feeling saucy. But I had to try something new.

Luckily after a quest around the Salty City for a Middle Eastern Market, I was able to score some pomegranate molasses. This may be the only place here that has this rare and arcane ingredient. So I suggested to the proprietor that he only sell the bottles one at a time. Luckily due to the language barrier, he had no idea what I was saying.

But Pars is a wonderful market with various and sundry middle eastern products like pita bread (which you really can't find any decent pita at the grocery stores around here), Turkish music (lots of CD's and DVD's) and ladies hair removal products. Seriously, Pars has everything you need if you're a hirsute lady.

Anyway I followed the recipe, marinaded for a day, smoked for three hours and the lamb just turned out bleh. It tasted mushy to me. Maybe I've been spoiled with ribs and brisket and beer can chicken on the smoker, but I ate hardly any of the lamb and wound up tossing about 2/3 of it.

I don't know if I cooked it wrong or what. I had the butcher debone it (which only sounds dirty) and then I smoked it just kind of splayed out on the grill. I did not tie it up which may be where things went awry. Sorry there are no pictures of the lamb sitting restfully in a Ziploc bag for a day or the Big Green Egg commencing to smoke. I'll try to have my act in gear next time I try something like this.

So if you know anything about smoking a leg of lamb or even just cooking a leg of lamb, let me know.

In the meantime, I'll stick to beef. And bacon of course.