One of the reasons people that don't like lamb feel that way is because they drink water with their meals.
Any animal protein with wobbly (cooked) fat like lamb will leave you with a strange dry taste/mouth-feel if you drink water with it. Beef doesn't have the same thing going on.
I think it's best to drink wine, beer or something similar.
Generally.
And also when eating lamb.
I personally love the stuff (lamb).
My favourite way to cook a leg roast is to ...
*Brine (in a fridge) the leg in a bucket of water with half a cup of salt, and half a cup of sugar for a day or two.
*Remove from the water and pat dry with a towel, then hide the towel, then when you get caught, promise to use paper towels in future.
*Leave in the fridge for a few hours to air dry the outside layer.
*coat with a mixture of ...
decent quality sea salt
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
black pepper
garlic
and finely chopped fresh parsley
rosemary
oregano
I also add a dash of Goulburn Valley worcestershire sauce. I wouldn't bother with a different brand of worcestershire sauce. Goulburn Valley's version doesn't taste much like worcestershire sauce, but works really well on lamb. Just leave it out if you cant get it.
Then (and this bit's really, really important) sprinkle with dry
falafel mix. Perhaps two teaspoons of dry mix sprinkled all over the roast.
Just buy it in a box from your supermarket.
This soaks up fat and flavour, and browns to the most amazing stuff it's possible to imagine.
Then put it in an oven at a bit less than 70c (160f) for between 5 and 7 hours depending on how big it is. Cook it until it's internal temperature is 65c (150f). Plan to have it cooked an hour or two before you need it. At such low temps, you can over cook it for an hour and it wont matter. Sometimes I add it to a hot oven to start(to help it brown), and other times I give a burst of heat at the end to brown. Sometimes, when I get it right, it's not required.
Or cook at 180c for 1.5 hours or so if you're in some kind of hurry for some reason, but really, go with the slow version.
For some reason I spent years putting off slow cooking a leg of lamb, but really there's zero extra work. I guess the first time you need to check your oven temperatures a bit to make sure they are reporting correctly, but after that there is zero extra work. (to check my oven temperature I put a small bowl of hot tap water next to the roast, and checked it's temperature with my meat thermometer every half hour or so. I adjusted the oven until I got the water sitting at the desired temperature. I took note (placed a small dot with a marker) of the setting on the dial for future reference.
I guess the reason I didn't do it was because it seemed crazy to cook something for that long.
Luckily roast lamb is sooo good sliced cold the next day, that you don't even need to do the hot meal part, and as a result can practice the slow cooking thing.
Serve with roast potatoes, roasted broccoli tossed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar (before roasting), and things like that, or thin sliced and cold the next day in a sandwich with tomato sauce (ketchup) and a dash of Worcestershire sauce for crazy happiness.
I roast a lamb leg on a cake cooling rack over a non-stick frying pan with the handle removed. This allows me to collect the awesomeness without it burning. At 70c you dont need to add water, but if you are roasting it fast, it's worth dropping a half a cup of water into the pan underneath to stop the juices burning.
Skim off and discard the minimum amount of collected fat your personal health/doctor allows, and create a gravy with a little cornflour or similar (I sometimes (for use with green peas) use a product called gravox)
Lamb also serves well with mint(ed) peas. Get some steamed green peas and either buy mint sauce from a supermarket, or make some by cutting up some mint and putting it in vinegar with some sugar. Stick it on your peas then eat liberally.
Peas are also great added to the gravy you should make. Get your pot of simmering gravy, and just pour them in until you cant pour any more in. Even frozen supermarket peas are awesome this way.
Lamb gravy.
Eat.
I find the easiest way to carve a lamb roast done this way is to follow the bone along the length of the roast to remove a huge fillet. ie one entire side of the roast, then slice that like you might slice a salami into nice thin slices so your cuts go across the bone if it were still there.
I always cook more than I need to feed whoever I'm feeding because it is so amazing cold.
Sometimes I cook a roast so that there will be nobody here when it's ready just so there can be more of it left over.
When your roast is nearly finished, it's best to hide it from your significant other before they can justify removing it from the fridge.
If you cant find the almost finished roast, and one of your torches is also missing, you'll probably find Mrs BullwinkleII hiding in a cupboard gnawing at the bone.
Do not, under any circumstances approach her, or attempt to retrieve what's left of the roast.
Ever.
Almost all of these steps are optional except the falafel mix, and the bit about not trying to get you bone back from Mrs BullwinkleII.
You really have to do the falafel mix thing.
Backyard Aquaponics
