First lamb cook on UDS

I was a little nervous about this one. Having not had lamb for years, and seeing all of the pictures of the Easter cooks on the FB groups I'm a member of, I thought it was time to give it a go.

The set up.

The charcoal basket was loaded with lumpwood this time. I wanted to try it to see the difference vs briquettes. (The results below).

I fired up half a chimney starter of lumpwood to dump into the three chimney starters of unlit lumpwood contained in the fire basket.

Added a few apple smoking chips to the basket for flavour.

It took about 30mins to be well lit and temps beginning to reach the 220⁰f I was looking for.

The meat prep.

Admittedly the lamb was a half leg from Aldi. I thought a more expensive joint might have been a little too risky for my second proper cook on the UDS.

I rubbed the lamb in olive oil, and then a blend of generic lamb seasoning. 

The other cut of meat is a pork shoulder I added to save for another Sunday roast.

The cook

The weather was not helpful for a slow cook. Outside it was 3⁰c with a wind chill to -2⁰c, it even snowed twice during the day.

Holding the temp at 220⁰f was proving difficult. It took a little more effort but managed to get an 8hr steady cook until it dropped to 180⁰f

The result

For a first go, I was very pleased. Having not had lamb for many years the taste was rich and not too smokey. I went traditional with roast potatoes and thick gravy (and mint sauce obviously).

Note.

A note on the lumpwood vs briquettes. My preference is briquettes for a more consistent burn. The lumpwood seemed a little 'jumpy' with hotspots and dead spots in the basket. I've since read that lumpwood is better with a BCF. (An adapted coal holder named after it's inventor)

I'll be exploring one of these later on.