Dangit… there’s Sam Adamses in the fridge and I promised the kids pizza tonite. Can’t waste Sam’s brew on Domino’s, now can I? I really wish I’d seen your thread before agreeing to pizza.
Not thinkingaboutribeyesNot thinkingaboutribeyesNot thinkingaboutribeyes
(well at least I’ve got some bud lite for those times when I’m not drinking beer)
I would like to go on the colleague stand-by list, please.
So noted Casey 
Mmm. I love grilled meat. When I grill steaks (usually ribeyes, but sometimes we get big t-bones instead, because we like to barbarically gnaw on the bones) I like to put thick slices of red onions, lightly oiled, on the grill next to them; they get all sweet and floppy and go perfectly with the meat. Or sometimes I’ll do spicy prawns next to the steaks for a surf-n-turf party.
One of these days I’m thinking about grilling a leg of lamb. I’ve never done it, but I love lamb, and just imagining it, all marinated with lemon and garlic and sizzling on the grill … Now doesn’t that sound good?
Any of you grillmeisters have any lamb tips for me? I have your basic Weber charcoal grill, nothing fancy.
Dudes, no! Use propane and taste the meat not the heat!
Not this again!
You can’t appreciate the quality of a propane “fire”, it takes no skill to create. It almost never fails that when my friends and I grill out (every weekend) that someone will say "Damn that’s a $@*%ing hell of a fire. Not a big one, just one that has perfectly spread and is optimal for charring flesh on.
The only cool thing about propane is the way that they ignite. A friend’s propane grill lights from the center out and makes an effect very similar to the flaming tire tracks in “Back to the Future”.
Hank Hill, is that you?
That’s what I have, Glassy, and it works just fine. The one time I did the full butterflied leg 'o lamb I had to haul out the Weber kettle, but most times I just use my little Smokey Joe for lamb chops and such.
I go the vaguely Greek route, rubbing the meat down well beforehand with lemon juice, minced garlic, minced rosemary and good olive oil. (Tossing in a little grated lemon zest doesn’t hurt either.)
Have the grill fired up with charcoal, using the standard methods. When it’s all ashy on the outside–medium coals, not blazing–spread them out, leaving a space at one side for “resting”. Soak down the rosemary branches, and toss those ontop of the coals, then plop the lamb on the grill. Have a spray bottle of water handy, because the oil and fat will want to flare up. Clap on the lid and let 'em cook for a while; lenghth of time depends on the thickness of the meat. (Keep the lid vent cracked a bit, but the smoke adds a lot of flavor. Wing it.)
When the lamb comes away from the grill surface easily, it’s okay to flip. (If it sticks, either the grill wasn’t clean enough or the meat isn’t ready.) Flip and cook until it’s to your taste. I like good lamb cooked to medium, but that’s up to you. Remove the lid toward the end to promote that luscious, crispy grilled thing.
For the full leg, I had to add a few coals during cooking to keep the fire hot enough.
It smoked like a sonuvabitch but the whole neighborhood was salivating.
Veb
Who’s suddenly starved for meat from a grill.
So am I. Thank you, Veb, that sounds doable.
I have this lamb recipe that we use at work (I’m a catering chef) that is delicious–
Sesame-ginger leg of lamb
1 3-4 pound of boneless, butterflied leg of lamb
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled
1 bunch of scallions, trimmed and chopped
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup sake or dry sherry
1/2 cup sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Put the garlic and ginger into a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped, then add the rest of the marinade items and pulse until almost smooth. Pour marinade over lamb in a large pyrex or tupperware pan, and marinate for at least 4 hours, but overnight is best. Either grill or broil to medium rare.
This, served with a few Asian-style sides makes an incredible dinner.
Oh, and in response to the OP:
I truly believe that most normal, healthy human adults love food, and just gain have a pleasure in watching food cook–look at the popularity of open kitchens in restaurants, and places like Benihana. A barbeque, or grilling meats is just another part of it.
Good danged point, Java. Or even the not-remotely-Martha-Stewart home kitchen. Being ‘watched’ disconcerted me for a while until I figured out nobody gave a whoop in hell about my twonky chopping techniques or frequent spills and splashes. Just gathering around food being prepared is very comforting and hospitable.
Everyday magic, really.
Veb
Pass that fine looking mad cow burger please.
BTW - I have a porterhouse, and a ribeye on the grill as I write…
:eek: - gotta go! med-rare is only 2.5 minutes a side on my weber!
I stumbled upon nirvana yesterday, quite by accident. We had guests over, and had been gorging on appetizer like food (chips with queso(sp?), etc.) when I fired up the BBQ with the last of the Real Chunk Charcoal we had (damnear impossible to find around here…WalMart has it occasionally)
Once the Charcoal is goin’ well in the chimney (You DO have a chimney , don’t you? two pieces of newsprint, one match, all the hot coals you could EVER need) I pitched on the mesquite that’d been soaking in water for the last hour or so.
Minutes later the BBQ is belching out the bestest campfire smell EVAR. I throw the brauts on the grill (I figured this whole thing was kind of a waste for brauts…but what the heck, we’ve got friends over.) and they cook.
Boy do they cook. I’ve done gas grills, I’ve done boiled in beer brauts, but NOTHING makes 'em GBD (golden, brown, and delicious) like charcoal. But I digress.
So the brauts are done, but we’re still not quite ready for them yet, so I close all of the airvents, put the brauts on the corn rack, away from the direct heat, and they sit there for the next hour or so, happy in moist 200 degree heat.
10 minutes before Dinner, I chuck the Oscar Meyers on the grill for the kidlets.
The brauts were STUNNING. Plump, not over done, and they had that nice pink ring you can only get from slowly smoked food. They had a smoked turkey leg taste, combined with PORK…and the plain jane hotdogs? Sheoot, they were pretty good too! Nothing like exposing meat to a carcinogen to add a little flavor, eh?
Arizona in mid-August? You deserve a free steak just for your bravery. I just realized I need to get started mowing the field. I’ll be damned if I have to do it next month and it takes a couple of weeks for me to complete.
I can hijack my own thread right? So it takes a couple weeks to mow your field? Well living in CT, (which your field could be the size of ) Thats pretty impressive…
I met a young guy once who was part of a traveling combine crew…When he old me how big the rigs were he drove, and how much he got paid, I nearly didn’t believe him! Damn!!! Those combines are HUGE!! Is that what you mow with?
It takes a couple of weeks because I have a regular full time job, so I work in the field in the evenings and on the weekend. We have about 140 acres, some of it is wooded. I use a mowing attachment pulled behind your run of the mill Massey Ferguson Tractor. It is fun at first, but gets boring after a while.