Smoked Leg of Lamb (easy)

I hope everybody had an excelllent July 4th weekend: I know I did. As the summer progresses, I am always looking for new ways to use my smoker. Although we've gotten pork and brisket down, and are not doing badly with chicken, I have never made a whole leg of lamb. Granted, I have butterflied them and grilled them plenty, but I have never tried to cook a bone in one. So when I saw half a leg (the proximal half) at King Kullen on the way to Fire Island, something compelled me to buy it and give it a shot. And I'm glad I did. Smoking a lamb was remarkably easy, fast (for smoking), and was a huge success at dinner. It also looks cool, all Henry the VIIIth and all, before you carve it up. I created this rub with the help of boy 2.

INGREDIENTS YOU WILL NEED

leg of lamb, bone in
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon thyme
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (for rub)

basting sauce ingredients
white vinegar, 1 cup
one tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
some lemon juice if available

INSTRUCTIONS

Either use a smoker or grill on indirect heat, at about 250 degrees. I guess you could try this in the oven as well, but without wood. I used mesquite, but you could use any wood you want. Mix all the spices together, and rub over the lamb. Place in a tray and place in the smoker. Ignore for at least three hours. Baste once or twice with the basting sauce ingredients (yes, you should combine those!). Using a thermometer, check doneness. I like this lamb at about 165 to 170 degrees. Let it sit a bit, carve and serve. Easy!

Dry and Wet "Lemonade" Marinade for Pork

I love to smoke things in the summer. No, not those kind of things, silly. Meat. Large pieces of tasty meat, slowly smoked over mesquite or applewood and eaten a variety of ways. Pork is one of the easiest types of meat to smoke, as it is quite forgiving to overcooking.

I originally meant to make smoked pork shoulder this weekend for "North Carolina" style pulled pork sandwiches. However, my friends at Ottomanelli's told me that the meat I ordered had a bit of a funny smell, and suggested a substitute. We decided on a pork loin with the bone still on. I sort of envisioned it as "giant ribs."

Because pork loin is a better cut of meat than shoulder, I wanted to serve it as a chop. Pulled pork is pulled because the meat looks better this way than sliced! I like a lemon flavor with light meats such as pork, so decided to make a lemon based marinade. Also, because smoking is done at such low heat, sugar doesn't burn and it is easy to give a "glazed" look to foods prepared this way.

So I mixed the following:

Juice of 3 lemons
2 cups vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt

and decided to call it "strong lemonade marinade" as "hard" lemonade was already taken by Mike.

I rubbed the pork prior to cooking with a mixture of 1:1 salt/sugar (and a little pepper, too). I then put it, tied as if it were a roast, in the smoker at about 200 degrees and left it alone for several hours. Then I brushed on the cooking marinade every hour and a half or so. The pork was 150 degrees when I removed it from the smoker and it was fabulous: both in taste and texture. When cut, the meat looks like a pork chop. The total cooking time was about 6 hours, although this can vary greatly!