How to cook a leg of lamb

Lamb leg baked in the oven can be rightfully called not an ordinary, festive dish. However, it will be tasty and nutritious only if the hostess follows the recipe completely and takes into account all the details of baking. How to cook leg of lamb in the oven correctly?

Learning to choose lamb

Mutton has long been considered to be a delight of exclusively Oriental cuisine. But gradually this type of meat masters and western territories. Purchase lamb in the store today is not a problem.

It is considered fatty, high-calorie meat, so from the whole carcass lamb leg is best suited for eating: it has the least fat. By purchasing this part, you should turn to the color of the fat layer. It is easy to determine the freshness of the product. If the fat is light, almost white, the meat is suitable for baking. If the fat has acquired a rich yellow color, the meat has been on the counter for a long time, and the dish will turn out to be tasteless because of the strong smell.

To make the leg of lamb baked in the oven ideally tasty, follow some of the secrets of oriental chefs.

What are the subtleties?

• Get the leg of a milk lamb. From it turns out the most worthy dish. In modern conditions, it is very difficult to make such a purchase, since a young lamb carcass is a rarity. Recognize such meat can be on a light shade of muscle streaks and fat. An animal must be no more than 18 months old, otherwise the meat will be old and tough.
• Before cooking, rinse the meat with hot water, so that the surface is washed off the fat, and remove excess fat with a knife. But on the leg there should still be a slight layer of fat that will protect the dish from dryness during cooking. An excellent solution would be to bake your leg and foil or sleeve so that it is cooked in its own juice.
• You should not make punctures in the lamb before sending it to the oven or during baking. Thanks to this, the juice will remain inside, and the meat will be juicy.
• You can calculate the cooking time by the weight of mutton. It takes 40 minutes to bake 1 kg of meat. The thickest piece is placed in the hottest part of the oven.
• Refresh the heavy taste of lamb allows rosemary spice, which has an unsurpassed light smell. It can be put both fresh and dry.
• After cooking do not rush to remove the meat and chop it. Let it stand in the oven for 20 minutes - it is saturated with its own juice as much as possible, it will be juicy and fragrant.

How to prepare the meat for baking?

Before cooking, meat should be carefully prepared. In addition to washing under hot water, you will need to separate the fat and streaks in the carcass. They give the lamb a peculiar smell.

If you often cook lamb, start a wide knife with a very sharp edge. Gently place it under the fat layer and trim until fat begins to separate. Catch the “surplus” with your hand and take it off, helping yourself with a knife. Try not to cut the meat.

As already mentioned, it is not recommended to make punctures on the fresh ram’s carcass before sending it to the oven. However, if you like spices, you can slightly cut the meat and put a sprig of rosemary. When using dry herbs, it is enough to rub the carcass with them. Thyme, mustard, oregano, basil, juice or lemon peel are also suitable.

Leg of lamb in the oven. Recipe with photos

Ingredients:

• leg of a young sheep;
• vegetable oil (preferably olive oil) - 1 tbsp. l .;
• some lemon peel;
• garlic - a few cloves;
• rosemary.

Cooking:

1. Peel the garlic and finely grate or crush the garlic.
2. Prepare the marinade from spices, salt, oil and garlic.
3. Grate the mixture of leg of lamb.
4. Grease the baking dish well. It is not recommended to cook lamb on the rack, since it will take even more time to do this.
5. Preheat the oven to 210-230 degrees and send the prepared meat to it. Bake for 2 hours.
6. Cool the oven to 170-190 degrees and cook for another 2 hours.
7. Turn off the oven and let the meat brew for 20 minutes.
8. When serving, pour over vegetable oil mixed with herbs.

Leg of lamb baked in the oven

Roasting sleeve makes lamb more juicy and tender. For this dish, you must have an olive oil-based marinade.

Ingredients:

• mutton;
• vegetable oil (preferably olive);
• grain mustard - 1 tbsp. l .;
• garlic - 4-5 cloves;
• wine vinegar - 1-1.5 st. l .;
• dried herbs;
• soy sauce, salt - to taste.

Cooking:

1. Prepare the marinade by mixing wine vinegar, herbs, grated garlic, mustard, salt or sauce, oil.
2. Grate marinade meat well, you can add a little honey to taste.
3. Put the meat in a sleeve, tie tightly and send to marinate in the cold for 6 hours. You can marinate lamb for the night in order to have time to cook for the festive table in the morning.
4. Warm up the oven to 210 degrees and send a prepared carcass into it. Bake for half an hour.
5. Cool the inside of the oven to 160 degrees and cook for another 1 hour.
6. Open the sleeve and cook for another half hour, until the meat is covered with a delicious crust.
7. Remove the lamb from the oven and let it brew for 20 minutes, after which you can cut and carry on the table.

Mutton Baked in Dough

Ingredients:

• lamb - 1.5 kg;
• butter - 50 g;
• spices - thyme, basil, oregano;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• lemon juice - 3 tsp;
• egg -1 pc .;
• salt.

For the test:

• butter - 1 pack;
• flour - 0.5 kg;
• water - 1 tbsp.

Cooking:

1. Knead the dough by mixing the necessary ingredients. Send it for 1.5 hours in the fridge.
2. In the prepared filet of leg of lamb make cuts.
3. Mix crushed garlic cloves, oil, lemon juice and spices. Stuff the cuts with this mixture.
4. A little salt.
5. Grease the form.
6. Warm up the inside of the oven to 210-230 degrees.
7. Put the meat in the form and send in the oven for 1 hour.
8. Remove the meat and bring the temperature to 160 degrees.
9. Wrap the lamb in the rolled dough. Edge well zaschipnut. You can top the dough with egg white to form a crisp crust.
10. Put the meat in the oven for another 40 minutes.
11. Cool, serve.

What to serve lamb?

Not every garnish is suitable for mutton. The ideal addition would be boiled rice, which absorbs fat well and leaves no feeling of heaviness in the stomach. The same can be said about stewed vegetables. They can be expanded in the form next to the leg of lamb while baking, so that the vegetables are soaked with meat juice and absorbed excess fat.

A less suitable, but still acceptable side dish is potatoes. It can also be baked in the oven with meat. However, it is worth considering that potatoes and lamb are two products that are hard to digest, so the dish will be very satisfying.

It is not recommended to serve lamb with pasta. The dish turns out to be too fat and far from useful.

When serving lamb on the table do not forget about fresh herbs and vegetables. They will promote the assimilation of meat and add notes of freshness to the festive table. Several spoil the picture of the bone can be wrapped with paper or foil.

Successfully obtained lamb leg, baked in the oven, will honor any hostess. Carefully treat the preparation of meat and do not neglect the nuances. Only in this case you will achieve a truly amazing taste.