Lychee Smoked Lamb Shoulder, add Tree Bark Rub , Superb

Lychee Smoked Pulled Lamb

Well here is something that is a little out of the ordinary.

Lychee Smoked Pulled Lamb. Using the trusty Kamado Joe Classic I take an ordinary square cut lamb shoulder and turn it into the most magnificent pulled lamb meals I have ever eaten.

Pulled Lamb in over drive

Ingredients:

  • Lamb Shoulder
  • Treebark Rub
  • Olive oil

Kamado Setup:

As we are going to be pulling this lamb it will need a med-long cook, somewhere between 8 and 10 hours so fill the firebox with fresh lump charcoal add your smoking wood. This is the first time using lychee wood as the smoke wood and I am really interested to see what flavour profile it adds to the lamb.

Of course with this cook, we are set up for indirect smoking. Deflectors in the lower position.

Aiming for a dome temp around the 110C (225f) mark for the majority of the cook.

Here are some essential items that will make cooking your lychee smoked lamb shoulder that much better.

The lamb,lychee wood and the Tree Bark rub were all purchased from The Low and Slow Meat Co. If you get the opportunity pop in and say g’day, tell them you read about them on Kamado Life.

Method:

  • Coat the Lamb Shoulder with oil
  • Apply a liberal coating of the Treebark Rub
  • Place lamb in a suitable roasting pan or a foil pan
  • Once the Kamado is up to temperature and stable add the Lamb
  • Cook until internal temperature around 95c (203f)
  • Now sit back and relax you will need somewhere around 8-10 hours
  • Remove and “pull” while hot.
  • Serve and enjoy.

Alternate/Variations/Suggestions

  • If you are cooking with the meat directly on the grill, suggest adding a water pan. Don’t just use plain water though add a bunch of herbs to add that extra depth of flavour.
  • You may wish to wrap in foil once you reach an internal temp of ~68c (155f) or once your bark has set. By wrapping in foil you will slightly decrease the cooking time. It is at this temperature that the meat hits the “stall” and seeming takes ages to progress. I will post more on the stall process in the coming weeks.
  • For this cook I wrapped for about the last hour as I needed to speed up the final part of the cook. I was only expecting 8hrs and it ended up being around 10…

Results

WOW WOW WOW.

The flavour of the Lychee Smoked Lamb Shoulder was outstanding. The Treebark rub is an absolute compliment to the lamb and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Just the right mix of ingredients, nothing overpowering or too salty. The bark that was formed was magnificent, kind of like the skin on a BBQ chicken, simply divine. I can’t wait to try it on other cuts of meat.

I have been asked about the Lychee wood some and what it added to the cook and the resulting flavour profile. During the cook, the aroma from the smoke produced from the lychee was amazing a really sweet smelling smoke, subtle but at the same time very aromatic.

What did it add to the meat?

This is a really hard question to answer and I have asked myself over and over since the cook. If I stop myself from overthinking it my initial answer is that it adds a very subtle flavour. Unlike some of the stronger flavoured woods that can leave a really overpowering smoky flavour. On a 10hr cook like this one, I think it was a perfect choice. The smoke flavour was definitely there and it was delicious. I cannot wait to try this on chicken where I think you will be able to taste some of the subtleties of the smoke itself.

What I would do differently

Learn, learn, and learn, that is what I try to do every time I cook. Here is some of the minor changes I would make for the next cook.

  • This was my first cook of anything where I was aiming for “pulled” so the final duration took me by surprise. I had initially estimated that I would need 6-8hrs and majorly underestimated the effect of the stall. Next time I would wrap a bit sooner.
  • I must buy a remote thermometer, make life so much easier

My bonus tip

 As the lamb was cooked in a pan it captured all the rendered fat, about 15mm covering the bottom. For this meal we had some simple greens with some mashed potatoes. If you take a couple of tablespoons of the drippings and add it to the potatoes you certainly won’t be sorry!! The creamiest most flavoursome mashed potatoes EVER!!

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