Advice on lamb shoulder in the WSM

After our travels through Western Kentucky in December, I've decided to give lamb shoulder a shot on the WSM. I went to a Halal butcher over on 63rd & just west of St. Louis, and got about 8 pounds of shoulder (at $2.99/lb). The butcher said it was a half shoulder, but it basically looks like one of these shoulders. I kind of wonder if it's not actually mutton (at that weight), but I'm not an expert on these cuts. Besides, it doesn't really make any difference to me. Mutton would be preferable, anyway.

Normally, I cook lamb rare, but that's usually leg cuts that I do. I was hoping to give it the pulled pork treatment. The meat looks like it has the requisite connective tissue and fat, and the mutton we were served in Owensboro certainly was cooked beyond rare. Has anyone done this before? Will the slow roast until the meat is pullable work? I don't see why not, but I'm curious what others have to say. The only thing I'm worried about is the bit of lamb that extends at the leg end -- it's much smaller than the rest of the roast. Should I hack it off so I could take it off the heat earlier, or should I perhaps foil it at some point, or will it just be fine as it is?

It's not going on the smoker until tomorrow morning--just resting in the fridge with a black pepper, brown sugar, salt, allspice, garlic, and Worcestershire rub.

Binko wrote:The only thing I'm worried about is the bit of lamb that extends at the leg end -- it's much smaller than the rest of the roast. Should I hack it off so I could take it off the heat earlier, or should I perhaps foil it at some point, or will it just be fine as it is?

Binko,

Is the "bit of lamb" that extends out on the bone or just a flap of meat? If bone I'd lop it off and save for stew or braise, if simply flap of meat tuck it under or leave as is and eat midway for cooks treat.

I'll be interested to hear if you get your lamb shoulder to the pulling stage, most lamb I have encountered is too lean to go the distance without drying out or resorting to foil. Your rub sounds tasty, though I am generally not a fan of sugar in rubs. A trick I've picked up with brown sugar is to dry it in a low oven then pulse in a food processor to the desired texture. This lowers moisture content, makes it easier to work with and reduces the tacky fly paper aspect.

Enjoy,
Gary

The bit of meat is bone, so I'm inclined to lop it off. As for the sugar, I, too, normally do not put sugar in my rub, either (being a graduate of your 5-Step program.) However, I decided to give it a shot on this one, as every Owensboro rub recipe I've found seems to have a little brown sure in it. The proportions are: 1/2 cup freshly ground black pepper, 2 T kosher salt, 2 T brown sugar, 1 T granulated garlic, 1/2 T allspice, and I used a mix of Worcestershire and mustard to help the rub stick.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm a little nervous, but this lamb looks fatty enough that I'm hoping it'll get to the pulling stage. Like I said, I have a feeling this is an older lamb, possibly mutton, given the size of this shoulder. I'll take pix before and after. We'll see. You never learn unless you make mistakes, right?

Binko wrote:You never learn unless you make mistakes, right?

Absolutely!

And with BBQ you get to eat your mistakes.

Looking forward to pics and your followup.

Enjoy,
Gary

Here's a picture of it, with 8-inch chef's knife for scale. It weighs in at 7 lb 2 oz.:



So, it's about 12 inches along the long edge, and 7 inches on the short side.

(That cut there is where I'm thinking of chopping the meat.)

More rub will be applied when it gets put on the smoker. I'm probably going to go a little heavier than usual on the hickory, too, as lamb/mutton seems to be strong enough to take a lot of additional flavor.

A year or so ago I got an 11-lb whole lamb shoulder from a local KC butcher. Having stopped a zillion times at Moonlight BBQ on my way to go visit the Blonde Professor in Bubbling Green, I was pretty keen on doing pulled lamb. After looking around on the web I found (or concocted, I can't remember which) the following Almost Owensboro Mutton:

Rub:
1/2 c ground black pepper
2.5 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp salt
1.5 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground allspice

Mop
Remaining Mutton and Lamb rub
1.5 c beer or beef stock
3/4 c white vinegar
3/4 c water
1/4 c Worcestershire

Black sauce
1 c Worcestershire
1 c white vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp ground allspice

My apologies to anyone I might have stolen this from. I just can't remember where it came from.

Gary will justifiably tsk-tsk me, but I followed the Cook's Illustrated finish-it-off-in-the-oven method.

24 hours rubbed in the fridge; 6 hours of cold smoke; hours and hours in a 250°F oven, until internal temp hit 200°F—which one can clearly smell. It took the rub and the smoke beautifully, and was wonderfully easy to pull by hand. The black sauce was good, but maybe not quite what one would get in Owensboro.

Absolutely worthwhile doing this!

Tell us how it all works out--

Geo

That black sauce recipe looks pretty reasonable to me. It's pretty close to how I made mine, the main bit being equal parts vinegar and Worcestershire. I found this NPR story online while looking for burgoo recipes (I'm thinking of using that little hunk of bone and meat sticking out in a burgoo), and they also give Moonlite's original mutton dip recipe (which apparently is not the recipe they use now.)

OK. Lamb shoulder is on the smoker. I decided to lop off that leg part for burgoo and figured to change up the Moonlite recipe a little bit. The linked recipe calls for boiling mutton in water until tender, then dumping the water it was cooked in out. I'm not terribly sold on that idea, so, after browning, I'm braising the lamb in a 325 oven (in a Dutch oven), and will incorporate that into the burgoo later.

I'll post photos in a little bit, but, suffice to say, everything was a success. I decided not to let the lamb go to pulling temps because I prefer the texture of chunks of meat to strands (which is how I do my pork shoulder--that is, chopped) but took it off the smoker after 11 hours @225-250F. Internal temp was about 185. One of the bones pulled completely cleanly from the meat without any resistance, another bone took a little picking with a fork. Meat was extremely moist, a bit greasy still, but very tender without any dry stringiness. Served on a bun with a slice of onion, two pickle slices, and a drizzle of black sauce. Good eats.

The burgoo turned out surprisingly well, too. More info with the pics.

The seasoned lamb shoulder, ready to hit the smoker:



Smokin':



The burgoo (thick enough so you could stand a spoon in it--at least that's the rule, apparently):



Lamb off the smoker, ready for the cutting board:



Finished sandwich, Owensboro style, with onion and two dill pickle slices:



Anyhow, as for the burgoo, I browned and braised that piece of lamb I cut off (I could have just as easily smoked it, I suppose, and perhaps that's what I'll do next time) for 4 hours in a 325 oven, inside a Dutch oven. After the braise (my purpose was to render the fat, since I don't have any time for defatting the stew), I threw it in a pot with three skinned chicken thighs (about one pound) and a pound of meaty beef neck bones. Brought to a boil for 10 minutes, dumped the cooking liquid (once again, to get rid of some of the fat and protein scum), filled with cold water. Simmered for 3 or 4 hours.

After the simmer, I removed the meats, pulled them away from the bones,shredded/chopped, and threw back into the broth. To this, I added a can of corn, 1/2 pound okra, 1/2 a very large shredded carrot, 1 can beef broth, about 1/2 cup of the black sauce, 1/2 a can of tomato paste, 3 large red new potatoes, one very large diced onion, and leftover rub with additional Worcester and salt to taste. Oh, and the juice of one lemon. Cooked for an additional 1 1/2 - 2 hours, adding water if needed. Given the end results, I'm pretty happy with this as is. The only change I would do for next time is to try it with some smoked meat in the mix.

Lamb looks really nice Binko. Good char on the outside, nice look on the inside. The fat seems to have just disappeared, permeating everything. Wish I could have helped you with that sammich, yummmm!

Burgoo looks official as hell. I only had it a couple of time in KY, but yours looks like it would win, show or place.

Smoking a lamb shoulder is a good job. Let's hope that more of the folks here will give it a try. I think lamb takes the smoke at least as well as pork.

Geo

Thanks!

One major ingredient I forgot -- the burgoo also had about a quarter head of shredded cabbage in it. (And one green bell pepper).