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Joule® Turbo Sous Vide

18-inch by 28-inch Heavy-duty vacuum-seal bag(s)

3-quart Saucepan

Digital instant-read thermometer

1/2 Sheet pan(s)

Splatter screen

Fine-mesh skimmer

Parchment paper

Fine-mesh spider skimmer

Breville Smart Oven® Air Fryer Pro

Leg of lamb

Mustard powder

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Neutral oil

Mint

Flat-leaf parsley

Rosemary

Yellow mustard seeds

Caraway seeds

Balsamic vinegar

Shopping
We like to ask the butcher for a full leg of lamb. It should be firm to the touch and covered with a layer of white fat. If you prefer a leg with the rump removed and the bone already frenched, that’s certainly an option. But a full leg is the more economical way to go, and we’ll show you a seriously simple way to french it yourself, plus a delicious technique for dealing with that rump meat.

Scoring
Grant developed this recipe over several trials. (We were eating a lot of lamb there for a while.) In early versions, he opted not to score the meat, and you can skip this step too if you’re in a hurry. That said, we strongly recommend it for two reasons: (1) it releases the connective tissue tension on the surface, which makes the meat less chewy and easier to slice after it cooks, and (2) it creates rivets in the surface for the rub to penetrate, amping up the flavor and helping you develop a crispy crust when you finish your leg in the oven at the end.

Cook time
You can cook the lamb for anywhere from 5 to 30 hours, and it will come out just as cooked as it would after 24. We chose 24 hours here because we like the tenderness we get over a long cook time, and it’s just a simple block of time to work with. Prefer your lamb a little less tender? Give 8 hours a try. Either way, there’s no need to sit there watching the clock. TL;DR: Your lamb can stay in the bath for 5 to 30 hours and still come out juicy and rosy, but the longer it stays in, the more tender it will get. Sous vide’s cool like that.

Controlling gaminess
Some people dislike the gamey flavor of lamb, but we’re here to tell you gaminess can be controlled. Some of that funky flavor comes from the fact that lamb (and goat, for that matter) contains a significant percentage of unsaturated fat—much more than, say, beef or pork. When this unsaturated fat oxidizes, such as when the lamb cooks, or when a sheep ages, the gamey flavor becomes more pronounced. (That’s why lamb is less gamey than mutton, which comes from older sheep.) The trick to controlling it is to use the very freshest lamb and cook it with antioxidant-rich spices, herbs, and flavorings—think mustard, rosemary, and balsamic vinegar. The antioxidants in those ingredients work to slow oxidation down, giving your feast a subtler, more crowd-pleasing flavor. This works both ways, of course. If you prefer a more pronounced gamey flavor, cook your lamb without the antioxidant-rich trappings. But when you’re serving a crowd and want to master a leg of lamb that will win over everyone at the table, this is the recipe for you. 

Preparing in advance
As detailed above, the fresher your meat, the less gamey it will taste. If you’re planning on making this lamb so that you can freeze and reheat it later, keep in mind that the reheated lamb will have more pronounced gamey flavors.

Before we begin

Heat sous vide water bath (make sure to use a container that’s large and deep enough to fit the lamb leg) to desired temperature according to our doneness guide. 

[f 131]: Medium-rare; rosy and very tender (our favorite)
[f 140]: Medium; tender and juicy
[f 149]: Medium-well; chewy and springy

Heat sous vide bath

Place leg of on cutting board so it lies flat. Using a sharp knife, at the point where rump meets leg, slice through the meat, all the way around, cutting around hip bone, until you expose the bone beneath. You may need to flip leg a few times and coax meat away from the bone with your knife.

Move leg to corner of cutting board so that slice you made is right against edge. Apply pressure, forcing bone to break, and completely separate the rump section from leg. Reserve rump for another use.

At point where leg tapers sharply to meet bone, make an incision all the way around bone, cutting through meat down to the bone. During cooking, this tough, sinewy meat will soften, and you will be able to slide it off afterward to reveal clean bone beneath it. Easiest Frenching method ever!

Using tip of your knife, score lamb leg on all sides with long incisions spaced 1 inch apart, in crosshatch pattern, cutting through skin and surface layer of fat but being careful not to cut through meat.

Prep, trim, and score lamb leg

In a small bowl, stir together mustard powder, salt, and pepper until well combined.

Make spice rub

Rub spice mixture over lamb leg on all sides. Place lamb leg in a 18-inch by 28-inch heavy-duty vacuum-seal bag large enough to fit whole leg.

Seal bag using water displacement method or vacuum sealer.

Rub and bag lamb leg

Lower bag into water until lamb leg is fully submerged, and clip to side of water bath container. Cover sous vide bath.

Cook for 24 hours. Check occasionally to make sure lamb remains fully submerged throughout cook.

Cook lamb sous vide

For long cooks, it’s important to cover your sous vide bath container to reduce evaporation. Use a lid, a cut-up yoga mat, or some high-quality plastic wrap, then let Joule do its thing while you prepare for a lamb feast.

Cover for long cooks

In a 3-quart saucepan or small Dutch oven, heat 2 inches of oil to [f 300] over medium-high heat. Line a 1/2 sheet pan with a double layer of paper towels and set next to stovetop. 

Working in small batches, add handful of mint leaves to oil, and cover momentarily with wire splatter screen. Fry until herbs are bright green, crisp, and glassy, about 1 minute. Using a fine-mesh spider skimmer, transfer to prepared sheet pan. Repeat process with remaining mint, parsley, and rosemary.

Once herbs are all fried, increase heat slightly to bring oil to [f 325]. Add mustard seeds to oil, and fry until they stop bubbling and foaming, 3 to 4 minutes. Using spider, transfer to sheet pan with fried herbs.

Repeat process with caraway seeds, 3 to 4 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, 1 to 3 minutes.

Transfer fried herbs and seeds to a medium bowl, and gently toss to combine. Set aside. Wipe 1/2 sheet pan clean.

Fry herbs and seeds

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to [f 450].

Line now-empty 1/2 sheet pan with parchment. Crumple a large piece of aluminum foil into a ball and set on sheet pan. Set a clean 3-quart saucepan next to sheet pan. 

Once lamb has finished cooking sous vide, carefully remove from bag and transfer to prepared sheet pan; reserve juices in sous vide bag. Hold lamb leg upright, with thin tapered end of leg bone facing you. Using your hand, grab meat at tip of bone (the area below incision you made around bone), and twist to remove it, exposing bone. Discard meat you just removed.

Arrange lamb on sheet pan, flat side down, and prop bone up with the aluminum foil ball to promote air flow during roasting step. Pour juices from bag into saucepan.

French lamb leg and strain cooking liquid

Add balsamic vinegar to saucepan with bag juices and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half and thickened to a spoon-coating consistency, about 20 minutes.

Strain glaze through a fine-mesh strainer, and cover to keep warm.

Make glaze

Transfer lamb to oven and cook until fat cap is crisp and well browned, 10 to 15 minutes.

Finish lamb in oven

Transfer lamb to a serving dish and drizzle generously with balsamic glaze. Sprinkle fried herb and seed mixture evenly over top.

Frying oil

Glaze and garnish

Serve

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Impossibly tender, exquisitely seasoned, and showered with bright-green herbs and crunchy seeds, this sous vide leg of lamb is a showstopper for any special occasion. A whole, bone-in leg of lamb is a pricey hunk of meat that can be tricky to cook it using conventional methods, because it’s irregularly shaped and has a big insulating bone running right through its center. It’s a roast that seems designed to be cooked sous vide, since using a temperature-controlled water bath guarantees that every last inch of it is cooked to the same level of doneness. Sous vide also delivers better results than conventional roasting, thanks to increased enzymatic activity that takes place within the meat as it cooks during the relatively extended cook time. A final high-temperature roast browns the exterior to provide all the toasty aromas and flavors produced by <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/mastering-the-maillard-reaction">Maillard browning</a>, and the juices from the cooking process are transformed into a glaze that pairs perfectly with a cascade of fried herbs and caraway seeds that we use to garnish the top. It’s a spectacular presentation for the best cooked lamb leg you’ve ever had.

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