18 COOK’S COUNTRY • APRIL/MAY 2019
THE GRILLING AREA at our
Boston test kitchen sits next to a cruise
ship terminal. This means that any
test cook who grills on a Friday has
a crowd of spectators eager to watch
while they wait to set sail. It can be
fun to have an audience when you’re
expertly searing a thick-cut steak. Or
it can mean that there are hundreds of
people to bear witness when a beautiful
8-pound leg of lamb gets enveloped in
menacing flames from the grill. I should
know. It happened to me.
I’d been thrilled to be assigned the
task of developing a recipe for grilled
leg of lamb. I love lamb’s meaty, mildly
gamy flavor, especially the leg. This
grand cut has an iconic figure, impres-
sive enough for any celebration, but
its tapered shape also means that, over
a fire, the meat will cook unevenly,
ending up burnt on the narrow end
and raw in the middle. My task: to
achieve a more even range of doneness,
from the charred exterior to a lovely
medium-rare in the center, with plenty
of flavor. And no major flare-ups.
To get started, I coated an 8-pound
bone-in leg of lamb with salt and pep-
per. I got a charcoal grill ripping hot
with smoldering coals spread evenly
over its base and placed the lamb on the
grate. It wasn’t long before the lamb’s
fat began to render and drip onto the
coals. The ensuing flames grew quickly,
engulfing the leg and prompting oohs
and aahs from my audience. The flames
may have looked cool, but they resulted
in a sooty flavor. My lamb tasted like a
spent cigar.
I needed to contain the flames, so for
my next test I built a half-grill fire, with
all the coals on one side of the grill. I
wanted to sear the lamb over the hotter
side and then race to move it to the
cooler side before the fat rendered and
the flames licked up. I lost the race. I
tried trimming the fat more aggressively
and cooking the lamb entirely over the
cooler side. There were no flare-ups,
but the leg was pale and sad-looking.
Here in the test kitchen, we often
turn to a technique called reverseA grill-roasted bone-in
leg of lamb served with a
charred-scallion sauce
makes for an impressive
holiday centerpiece.Grilled
Bone-In Leg
of Lamb
It took 112 pounds
of meat, but we finally
achieved a leg of
lamb that tasted as
impressive as it looked.
by Morgan Bolling