Little Lamb, Who Ate Thee?

"The Lamb"

Little Lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life, & bid thee feed

By the stream & o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight;

Softest clothing, wooly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice?

Little Lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee:

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb.

He is meek, & he is mild;

He became a little child.

I a child, & thou a lamb,

We are called by his name.

Little Lamb, God bless thee!

Little Lamb, God bless thee!

-William Blake, 1789

I can understand how some people get uneasy at the thought of eating lamb. To them, the word lamb is better associated with this:

Aww, I used to watch this show every day when I was seven years old!

How can anyone eat a lovely and fluffy thing like that? It's inhuman! It's unnatural!  And it was delicious! Especially for a first-time lamb roaster.


I originally wasn't going to write about lamb. I had been planning on writing about the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity (the restaurant and the John Cusack/Kate Beckinsale movie). But Sandwich already talked about ice cream in his delicious Breakfast for Dessert post last week. This left me with a predicament, as I had no other immediate back-up ideas for what to write.  


Then, in a great moment of serendipity, a trip to Wegman's for some Easter food shopping led to the lamb! Dad needed to buy some beef for his Mechado (yum!) and whilst looking through the refrigerated meats, we came across the lamb section. I had always wanted to make a lamb, and the sizes they had, approximately 4.5 lbs each, were a good size for our Easter party, as not all the relatives would want to have lamb. So, despite its hefty price ($7.50/lb), we picked up a leg of boneless lamb.  


This was actually my first time cooking lamb. We never cooked it in our kitchen before, mainly because it takes so long and often costs a lot. I didn't want to go overboard, so a simple search of "roast lamb" led to some great recipes. Rather than try one specific recipe, I just took the ideas I liked and made my own. There's no measurements here, as I pretty much played it by ear and scent, using as much or as little as I wanted of the following ingredients.

Not pictured: Salt, Pepper, EVOO, my drooling mouth

1 (4.5 pound) leg of lamb

3 garlic cloves, cut into slivers

Chopped Rosemary

Chopped Mint

Chopped Dill Weed

Salt & Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I first chopped up the rosemary, mint, and dill weed, and mixed all three together in a bowl. The aroma of all three coming together was heavenly, particularly the strong mint. I had bought all three fresh on Easter, literally minutes before I started bringing everything together to prepare the lamb. Ironically, we actually have fresh rosemary growing in a potted plant; but by the time Mom told me about it, I had already chopped and mixed my three greens. 


 I knew that as a dry rub, the three wouldn't work well. So I added in a spoonful or two of extra virgin olive oil, stirring and mixing it almost like a paste. Food Network's Rachel Ray, or Giada DeLaurentiis, taught me the value of a paste for a rub, and I'm inclined to say it was Giada.

Chopped rosemary, mint, and dill weed, before the EVOO is added.

Before I could do the rub, I needed to insert the garlic. One recipe recommended inserting the garlic and doing the rub, then let it sit overnight.  I opted not to do that, preferring to do all my preparation together in one sitting, especially since it's my first time. Maybe the second time.  To insert the garlic, simply take a knife and puncture the lamb in strategic places, large enough for the garlic slivers to fit inside.  These will go all around the lamb; I ended up chopping the three cloves into twelve slivers.


Once the garlic's inserted, it's time to get your hands dirty.  I first tried using a spoon to spread the rosemary-mint-dill rub, but it simply wasn't spreading as nice as I wanted it too.  It clumped too much and generally looked abysmal.  So I simply used my hands, working the rub into the meat all over, almost like a massage.  It still didn't cover the lamb the way I had hoped, but for a first-timer, I think I did all right.

A rubbed lamb.  Note a couple of the garlic slivers sticking out, I didn't want to insert them all the way in for the picture.

During all this preparation, I was pre-heating my top roaster at 450 degrees (F).  Before I put the lamb in, I salted and peppered the whole thing; although, I didn't use much pepper, as I wanted the rosemary and mint taste to stand out.  In addition, I added a few sprigs of the fresh rosemary that we had (the one we grew), placing one or two on top of the lamb and a couple just on the rack.  


The lamb went into the roaster for 20 minutes at 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  I then turned the temperature down to 350 degrees, and the long waiting period began.  The common element of all the roasted lamb recipes I found said that it should cook for 30 minutes per pound, or until it reached an internal temperature in the 145-155 range.  With a 4.5 pound lamb, that meant two hours and some change.  During this time, we were making other food and family had arrived, and so the time actually flew by.


By the time the  timer rang, the lamb looked done.  I checked the internal temperature with a meat thermometer, and it reached 153F.  I immediately took the lamb out, set it on a plate, and took a picture.  Then I covered it in tin foil to let it cool down for ten minutes, whilst also letting its steam heat it some more.  

Finally, the moment of truth.  Cutting the lamb.  I'll just let these pictures speak their two-thousand words.

- Sonic