The pressure is on. My first cook for others.
So with visitors coming for dinner (the inlaws), this is the first real test – cooking for others, aiming for a set time for dinner… The pressure is on. It’s now time to deliver the Kamado Joe – Australia Day Lamb Shoulder, Low and Slow.
My plan was for a really flavoursome lamb roast. Sent my wife off to my current favourite butcher – the Low and Slow Meat Co – at Tingalpa. Can’t fault the product that we have bought from them. I will remember this one for a long time – Tomahawk Steak. Was looking for a boneless something and ended up with this magnificent Sovereign Lamb Shoulder 2.4kg of awesomeness…
As the meat looked absolutely magnificent, I really wanted to just try and enhance but not overpower the natural sweetness that is slow cooked lamb. I picked up an awesome Garlic rub made by Lanes BBQ, and planned to add the traditional flavours of fresh garlic and fresh rosemary, salt and pepper.
Simple Preperation
So my prep for this cook was pretty basic – up early and apply the rub, salt and pepper and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours while I got the Kamado Joe Classic sorted for the 8+hr cook for the day. Unwrapped the lamb, covered with a splash of olive oil, inserted some fresh garlic in a few locations just deep enough to be under the surface, I also added sprigs of rosemary to the same cut. A generous sprinkle of the Garlic rub, fresh ground salt and pepper plus added a small touch of the Stubbs Bar-B-Q rub just for that hint of something unique.
Now the Kamado set up I tried something a little extra with the deflectors and some added pizza stones. The deflectors were in the low position, I then added a pizza stone on top of this one. Put the Xrak in place and added another pizza stone. My thinking here was to include some additional “protection” to the veggies that I would be putting in there later in the afternoon.
For the heat it was 80% fresh lump , a couple of small handfuls of hickory chips and I split some ironbark chunks that I had from our camping wood stockpile.
After about 40 mins of getting warmed up, it was time to add the meat. For the initial period, I just had a tray sitting under the roast, took the opportunity to add some more aromatics to this tray and catch some of the juices /rendered fat from the lamb.
Went pretty well and held temp like a champion. That is definitely one thing about the Kamado style cookers they are awesome once dialled in. On with the veggies at the 4-hour mark.The prep for the veggies was nothing special. Pumpkin, potatoes, carrots and a couple of onions. Drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with the Lanes BBQ Garlic rub, added a good sprinkling of salt and pepper and that’s it. Added a tray (spuds) under the roast, and a second tray (pumpkin) on the top rack. Started to baste the top of the roast with an olive oil garlic and rosemary mix – looking to keep it moist.
Nice progress, time to wrap
At around the 6-hour mark, I decided to wrap the shoulder, looking for 2 things keeping the shoulder moist and limiting the smoke content. At around the same time, I think one of the chunks of ironbark lit up and provided a ton of smoke – good for the veggies but may have been too much on the lamb. Timing was lucky, but it worked well. For the wrap, I decided to make up a liquid to add some additional flavour complexity. For the liquid I made up some beef stock, pepper, garlic, rosemary gave it a good mix up and basically poured it into the bottom of the foil wrap.
Once the veggies probed tender, I pulled them off and put into a pre-warmed oven. At around the same time, the roast hit temp and decided to pull it off and rest. Once the roast was off, re-configured for a quick corn cook – charred corn on the cob…
After about 30 minutes rest it was time to see what the result was… Wasn’t disappointed. Super juicy, well rendered fat, and a nice subtle flavour provided by the rub. Awesome.
To finish off the nite, a little store-bought apple pie !! Never had smoked apple pie before… Mmmmmmmm… Won’t be the last either. 🙂
Cook Summary
Total cook duration: 8Hrs 25Mins
Kamado dome Temp ~120C (250f) wasn’t too picky about the temps as I knew it was going to be a pretty long cook.
Here’s a quick video of the cook
Thanks for stopping by…
Joe on !!!!
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