Barbecued Butterflied Lamb With a Mint Jelly Glaze
TRCC Mint Jelly Mini 110g
$6.95
Hand-packed and dispatched from our Corio, Victoria warehouse, with free delivery Australia-wide on orders over $100.
By Jodie Smith, Product & Hamper Manager at The Gourmet Pantry.
Barbecued butterflied lamb with a mint jelly glaze is a boned leg cooked flat over two heat zones, brushed with warmed mint jelly for the last 10 minutes so the glaze sets instead of burning. Serves 6 to 8, about 35 minutes on the barbecue.
Why the bone comes out for this one
A butterflied leg is a leg of lamb with the bone taken out and the meat opened flat, roughly the shape and thickness of a very large steak. Ask the butcher for it by name and it takes them a few minutes. Flat is the entire point. It brings every part of the meat within reach of the heat at once, so a cut that wants two hours in an oven is cooked and rested inside the hour.
The shape also gives you something a rolled roast cannot: a range of doneness in one piece. A butterflied leg is thick at one end and thin at the other, so the thin end comes off well done while the thick end stays pink, and a table where nobody agrees gets fed from a single cut. On a hot December day the oven stays off as well, which counts for more than it sounds once salads, bread and a fridge full of seafood are competing for space. Christmas lunch ideas for a hot Australian day covers the rest of that table.
Mint jelly glazes because it is already set
Most glazes are built by boiling sugar into something until it thickens enough to cling. Mint jelly turns up thick. It is set with apple pectin and sugar and carries the mint through it, so it needs no reduction and nothing added to make it stick to meat. Warm it with a splash of vinegar and it goes from a firm green spoonful to a brushable syrup, and as the lamb rests it tightens back into a thin lacquer over the crust.
That is the case for using the jar this way rather than the usual way. A cold spoonful beside the meat is the part of the plate most likely to come back to the kitchen untouched. Brushed on at the end, the same jelly seasons every slice, and the vinegar stops it reading as a boiled sweet. We use Officers' Mess Mint Jelly from The Regimental Condiment Company, whose Officers' Mess line is the sweet end of a range better known for its mustards and relishes.
Worth saying plainly: we do not sell lamb. The leg is a butcher buy, and in December it is worth ordering the weight you want a week or so ahead. What we sell is the jar that goes beside it, and the jar keeps in the cupboard until you need it.
Method
Method
- Order the leg ahead and ask the butcher to bone and butterfly it, trimming the fat back to a thin, even layer.
- Open the lamb flat and even it out: where one muscle sits much thicker than the rest, cut a shallow slash into it and press it open so the piece is roughly level.
- Whisk the olive oil, garlic salt flakes, oregano, lemon zest, lemon juice and a good grind of pepper together in a small bowl.
- Rub the marinade over both sides, working it into the cuts, then cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Add no extra salt, because the garlic salt flakes carry it.
- Take the lamb out of the fridge 45 minutes before it goes on, because meat this thick cooks unevenly from cold.
- Set the barbecue up with two zones: burners on high down one side and off down the other, or coals banked to one side. Get it properly hot, then scrape and oil the bars.
- Pat the surface of the lamb dry with paper towel, since wet meat steams instead of browning.
- Lay the lamb fat side down over the hot side with the lid up and leave it for 5 minutes, moving it only if flames come up through the bars.
- Turn it over and give the cut side 4 to 5 minutes, until it has colour across the whole face.
- Move the lamb to the cool side, fat side up, close the lid and leave it for 15 to 20 minutes.
- While it cooks, warm the mint jelly, vinegar, olive oil and Dijon in a small pan over low heat until the jelly melts into a syrup. Keep it below a simmer, because boiling takes it back towards toffee.
- Test the thickest part with a finger at about the 15 minute mark. Medium rare gives under gentle pressure and springs back slowly, and the firmer it feels the further through it is.
- With about 10 minutes left, brush the first coat of glaze over the top of the lamb and close the lid.
- Five minutes later, brush on the second coat and close the lid for a final 5 minutes, until the surface is glossy and tacky rather than wet.
- Lift the lamb onto a warm board and rest it for 15 minutes, covered loosely with foil so the crust does not soften.
- Carve across the grain into finger-thick slices, spoon the board juices and any glaze left in the pan back over them, and scatter with torn mint and salt flakes.
What to do with what is left
Cold glazed lamb beats cold roast lamb, because the sugar and vinegar keep working overnight. Slice it thin for sandwiches with a smear of the same jelly. It keeps three days covered.
Glaze left in the pan sets hard as it cools and comes back with 30 seconds of low heat and a teaspoon of water. Brush it onto cutlets, chicken thighs or halloumi the next night. If the barbecue is doing the Christmas cooking at your place, Ottolenghi Smokey Honey Marinade on the Christmas barbecue is the same shift with a different flavour.
Questions we get asked
How long do you barbecue butterflied lamb?
About 30 to 35 minutes for a leg of around 2kg, then 15 minutes resting. That is 5 minutes fat side down and 4 to 5 minutes on the cut side over direct heat, then 15 to 20 minutes over indirect heat with the lid down. A thinner leg is quicker, so go by how the thickest part feels rather than by the clock.
When do you put a glaze on lamb?
In the last 10 minutes, and over indirect heat. Anything with sugar in it burns before the meat is cooked through, so an early glaze gives a bitter crust over a raw middle. Two thin coats 5 minutes apart set into a proper skin; one thick coat slides off.
What do you serve with barbecued lamb at Christmas?
Something sharp and something starchy. A green salad with a mustard dressing, tomatoes with salt and oil, and warm potatoes or good bread to catch the juices. Salads for Christmas lunch, and the dressings that carry them has the versions that survive an hour on a hot table. Keep the rest plain, because the glaze is doing the sweet and sour work.
The jelly sits in The Regimental Condiment Company range, $6.95 for the mini and $12.95 for the 310g jar, alongside the rest of our gourmet condiments. If you are sending food rather than cooking it, the Christmas hampers are the other end of the same shelf. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post.
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