A leg of mutton
 

This has been my grocery getter for the last few months.
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...n/IMG_2011.jpg
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...n/IMG_1539.jpg
We ride over to the our neighbor's who runs an organic farm, fresh unpaturized, unhomogenized milk, veggies, free range eggs, that kind of thing.
He also has 3 free range boys who really envied this ride.
So I found a bigger one that has room for both girls and the groceries and passed this one on to them. The farmer gave me a great big leg o mutton in exchange.
Now, how should I cook it?

With glee and a warm heart. :)

stan

Grilled lamb is always good... I get deboned legs from the butcher, marinate a day in red wine and spices and go for it.

If it has a bone, I'd brown the outside over the heat briefly then roast off to the side off the heat indirectly. Usually any meat is 20 minutes a pound for medium rare. I use a Weber myself.

Remember, lamb is best rare...

yum, I love lamb anything, stew chops you name it have fun and eat well.

Fantastic pics! I suspect they were not taken recently, I remember it being quite a bit colder this time of year when I lived across the Piscataqua...

Yah, global warming! Southern Maine is usually frozen by now. They do it on purpose to keep those New Yorkers out. They stop at Vermont.

Don't forget the mint-jelly with that leg. Yum!!

OOOHHHH I like to baste my lamb in a butter lemon sauce with a tad of rosemary in it... oh that is so good. Gives it a greek flair.

Now I am all hungry for lamb... gotta get some now myself.

I concur with the grill instructions from dbaki: but for the (24 hour) marinade I like a lot of garlic, rosemary and lemon juice, salt and cracked peppercorns.

Well, gee, if we're getting specific:

I'd marinate in red wine, garlic, onions, thyme, rosemary, pepper, tiny bit of cayenne, soy sauce, tiny bit of sugar, and a little olive oil. At least from morning until the night you cook, the longer the better (within reason). Baste the meat with the leftover marinate as it cooks. Wine breaks the meat down, so always good to include.

The lemon is Greek, not really to my taste, but fine if you like it that way. My friend is Greek, he once did an entire lamb for Easter on a spit, basted with a mop from a bucket of butter.

Honestly, lamb is the best. But my wife won't eat it!

this is great: C&V has turned into a cooking forum :) next stop: Food Network!

aaahhhh but this all started because he gave away the trailer that he hooked up to his C&V bike, so there is a connection.

I won a three-day mountain bike stage race once, and amongst the prizes was 2.5 gallons of honey and a live lamb. I traded the lamby for a gallon of Ancient Ancient Age (another guy's race prize). I couldn't stand the idea of whacking that cute little bugger.

(Love lamb, though. Just don't like the whacking part).

Hmm. Good suggestiions.
Hey chris, where did you live before you were from Miami?
I like the sound of the lemon butter, BBQ sounds good too but i don't know if I'll get to that for a couple of months.
Maybe I'll just think about it a while.
Thanks guys!

I spent four years at Pease AFB starting in '86, lived Portsmouth and Somersworth. I did a bit of mountain biking then, but more surfing - found lots of nice breaks from Seabrook through Wells Beach. Fun times, I miss the seacoast.

Do you work at the shipyard?

No, I work on a boat called the Gundalow (see http://www.gundalow.org/), funny old tallship replica. We do stuff with kids and history field trips and stuff.
We're in South Berwick. Not too far from Somersworth.
I wonder if any of my surfer buddies know you.

Where are you in Maine?

When I move from the city I'd like to plant some roots near a good local food system.

I find grilling big slabs like that pretty challenging, so if I had a pot big enough, I'd probably braise it slow and long like an Osso Buco. Some celery, onion, carrot saute first, throw in some bacon pieces, a bay leaf, a couple cups of wine and some thyme sprigs. Let that bugger short of simmering for several hours and you can't overcook it. If you're doing it around Christmas, I'll come up from Lexington and try it!

Very blond and cute kiddo!

How cool is that! I remember admiring the gundalow when it was docked at Prescott Park during the summer. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we know a few of the same people, it's a small world. :thumb:

From classic trailers to recipes to working ships, could we get any more off topic? :)

I was digging through some boxes of photos the other night and found one that reminded me of this thread. Sailor Ben's sailing barge:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-y...undalow_01.JPG

Wow. I really don't know what to say. How did you remember this thread, or my old boat? That was over 3 years ago.
I sorta miss my old barge. It was really fun to sail, though you couldn't call it fast. Sorta like a 50 ton Sunfish.

Oh, one doesn't forget a thing like that :innocent:

So...how did you end up cooking the lamb? :)

Any pictures under sail? Small barges have gone from our waters, an aquintance still runs a small wooden tug, mostly for running supplies around the work site. You barge is definatley cool!

All my pics from that era are on my backup drive but they've got a few good pictures on their website;
http://www.gundalow.org/
Actually, they built a whole new boat. The one I was on was really just for static display in 1980 or thereabouts, no modern safety features at all. No engine, no electrical system, no plumbing, nothing. It was an engineer's dream. I could take a few volunteers out for "training" sails but no paying passengers. This new one is built to USCG regs and they've been sailing the heck out of it.

Isn't cannibalism illegal?