Mastering the Grill_ The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking - Andrew Schloss [176]
• You’ll need a large work surface for preparing and serving the lamb. A picnic table works nicely. Cover the table with foil, a plastic dropcloth, or another cloth to protect it.
• If you can borrow a spit-roaster, that’s the easiest way to go. Otherwise, you can rent one from a local all-purpose renter such as Taylor Rental. It’ll cost $75 to $100 for the day.
• The spit rods for some spit-roasters have holes drilled into them every 6 inches or so. These holes make it much easier to attach the animal to the rod—and to remove it. Large skewers are pushed through one side of the animal, then through the holes in the rod, and then out through the other side of the animal. If you can find a spit-roaster of this sort, it will save you the trouble of tying the animal’s backbone to the rod with wire and then removing the wire before serving.
• Some spit-roasters have skewers that mount onto the spit from the pointed end of the rod only. If that’s the case with your spit-roaster, slide the rear skewer onto the rod before you push the rod through the lamb. After wiring the lamb to the rod, slide on the other skewer.
• Carving up the cooked whole lamb may seem like a daunting task, but it really isn’t. A meat cleaver or other heavy, sharp knife makes the job go pretty quickly. First, make a few primal cuts. Remove the hind legs and forelegs/shoulders by driving the knife right through the primary joints. Each leg will serve 2 to 3 people. If you’d like to serve the ribs, cut them from the backbone by standing the lamb on its neck and driving the knife down as close to the backbone as possible to strip the ribs from the backbone. Cut each half of the rib cage into 2 or 3 sections before serving. There isn’t much meat on the ribs of a 25-pound lamb, but those who love to lick the bones clean will enjoy them. Next, scrape the meat from the loin, back, and shoulder areas. The meat will be embedded all along the backbone. Finally, if you’d like to make lamb stock, hack off the neck with your cleaver. It can be frozen for a month before you toss it into the stockpot.
THE GRILL
Gas:
Indirect, medium on a gas-fired spit roaster
Charcoal:
Indirect, medium on a charcoal spit roaster,
charcoal bed split into 4 corners (about 2 dozen coals per corner)
Wood:
Indirect, medium on a wood-fired spit roaster, coal bed split into 4 corners
INGREDIENTS (MAKES 12 SERVINGS)
12 branches fresh rosemary
3 heads garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
1 small whole lamb, 25 pounds or so, dressed for spit-roasting
2 lemons, halved
½ cup olive oil, plus more if needed
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1½ tablespoons ground black pepper
3 scallions, roots trimmed
DIRECTIONS
1. Strip the leaves from 8 of the rosemary branches and put the leaves in a food processor, along with the peeled cloves from 2½ heads of garlic. Pulse until finely chopped. (Make and refrigerate up to 2 days ahead to get a jump on things.)
2. Put the lamb on a large work surface with the chest cavity up. Squeeze the juice from the lemons into a bowl, discarding the seeds but saving the rinds. Rub half of the lemon juice all over the inside of the lamb cavity and inner thighs. Rub the entire cavity with¼cup of the olive oil. Sprinkle the cavity with one-third of the garlic mixture, 1 tablespoon of the salt, and 2 teaspoons of the pepper. Put the scallions, remaining 4 branches rosemary, remaining peeled garlic cloves, and the spent lemon rinds into the cavity.
3. Push the spit rod through the lamb’s rear, along the cavity parallel to the backbone, and out through the neck or upper chest. Lay the lamb on its side with the cavity facing you so that you can wire the backbone to the spit rod. Position an 8-inch length of wire in the center of the cavity. Insert the wire through the inside of the lamb near the backbone and rod. When the wire