Leg Of Lamb For The Hawthornes.

One of the Hawthorne Boys' favorite meats is lamb. Middle Hawthorne would prefer lamb chops, but at $9.99/pound that's not really in my budget. Especially when Middle H. could eat 8 at one sitting. I had a semi-boneless leg of lamb in my freezer so I thawed that out to prepare for dinner Friday night.

We had bought this leg some time ago on sale for $3.49/pound which isn't too bad for lamb.

First, I had to trim a good amount of fat off of it. You want to leave some of it on for flavor, but certainly not as much as the butchers leave on.

I always pour boiling water over the meat because that's the way Mama Hawthorne did it. I guess you could sear it too.

Then I tucked in garlic pieces wherever I could.

And some mint for extra flavor. If you need to, add extra water while it's cooking and scrape up the pan drippings.

I cooked this for about 2 hours in a 350 degree oven. We took it out when the thermometer registered 160 and it continued to cook until it reached 169. Lamb is a tender meat and there's not much internal fat or "marbling" like you have with certain cuts of beef. Because of this lack of fat in the lamb, you have to rely on the lamb's natural juices for moisture. If you overcook lamb, you cook out these natural juices, and you end up with a dry, tough, flavorless meat.

Here's our dinner. Tender, subtle, flavorful, succulent slices of lamb, crisp-tender carrots, buttered corn on the cob, homemade applesauce, and potato with butter and fresh dill. Another very simple and very good meal.