Wandering around outside this morning and noticed two rosemary bushes are getting a little overgrown. It got me to thinking. If I was going to cook some meat (pork or lamb) on the smoker, would it be a viable option to drop a little of that excess rosemary into the fire box when I first put the meat on the smoker? Would it incorporate that rosemary flavor into the smoke ring, or would it just give the meat an acrid taste? (Another option would of course be to add a sprig of rosemary to the meat when I foil-wrap it during the cook phase.)

I have heard of people doing it, but have never tried it. In my opinion it would be worth trying, but perhaps only with pork or something else that you do a lot of (not as big a risk if it doesn't work). For me, lamb would be a special occasion, so I wouldn't want to experiment with that. Going off of instinct along I am guessing that a small amount wouldn't hurt, and could possibly help add a nice dimension.

If you try it, I'd be interested in the results!

I am confident that it would work well in the foil, as you mention - it's a great addition of pork, lamb and probably poultry or fish, as well.

I've used rosemary on pork, lamb , goat, and don't forget venison, for marinade and on the meat. The lamb coated with rosemary/garlic/lard has been a standard forever and still works .
I've never tried rosemary smoke.

We eat a lot of lamb , or more correctly mutton - which is older than 12 months as under 12 months old is lamb for us . My usual method is to stab holes in the meat , particularly if a shoulder roast or a back leg roast , and push in a sliver of garlic , a piece of rosemary , and a sliver of anchovy fillet. I do that all over the piece of meat at about 2 inch intervals . Its takes a while and gets messy but its worth it .

The I use the oild from the anchovies and smear it all over the meat. A sprinkle of salt and pepper , then into a baking dish on a wire rack to keep it off the floor of the dish.

Usually I will have laid a few long stems of rosemary on the wire rack before the meat goes on . A glass of white wine and a glass of water in the dish , cover , and place in a preheated oven at about 200 degrees Celsius ( we are a metric country so have no idea what that is in farenheit - actually its 400 degrees F ). After about 35 minutes , turn the heat down to 150 degrees C or about 310F and cook at that for about 90 minutes.

The ultimate for cooking mutton is to put the meat in the oven at lunchtime at about 140C / 290C and leave it there all afternoon. By about 5.30 you should be able to grab the leg bone , give it a shake and have the whole joint of meat virtually fall off the bone . Mutton / lamb is not fast food.

Muzza, I'm going to overlook the fact that you used the word "anchovy" in public. Even worse "use the oil from the anchovies and smear it all over the meat". I had to go lie down for a while just to recover from the thought. (I can eat a lot of weird stuff, but an anchovy isn't one of them.)

What does interest me is your last paragraph. You mention 140C/290F for about 5 1/2 hours. I wonder what the internal temperature of the lamb is at that point? I saw a recipe on the Internet that mentioned 195F/91C for falling-off-the-bone tender. That seems high to me. I think Well Done for lamb is around 170F/77C. Do you think it has to go far beyond Well Done to get to that pick-it-off-with-your-fingers tenderness?

The best lamb I ever ate was at the Peshawri (ITC Maratha Hotel) in Mumbai. The restaurant doesn't even provide eating utensils. The food is that tender. The tandoor-cooked lamb was simply stunning.

Kensco,

We agree on most stuff. Certainly politics. But you are missing out big time on anchovies.

I bet you don't like sardines either.

Have you tried them?

Guys , the anchovy debate aside - really , you wont taste them but its a nice addition - cooking lamb/mutton at low/moderate temperature in a covered dish with liquid is a great way to get fall-off-the-bone meat.

Its the combination of time and temp that does it . Although perhaps our sheep meat is better than yours to begin with ? Who knows , differant cultures cook food in differant ways ....

As an aside , I have cooked a leg of lamb/mutton by a very slow , low temp method - 18 hours at 120 degrees Celsius and aside from the kitchen smelling delicious for a longer time , there truly was no differance in tenderness or fall-off-the-bone at all.

Does that shed any more light on the deal ? I have to say that when I have visited supermarkets in the US and looked at the "lamb" in the meat section it hasnt excited me at all. I suspect if I could get a leg of lamb roast straight off the carcase before they adulterated it for sale I could duplicate the classic New Zealand roast.

Shame we all live so far apart or we could do some culinary experimenting , anchovies and all.

I think using rosemary in the smoking process is a great idea and would be very interested with your thoughts on the outcome. You will have to soak the rosemary in water before hand and keep it away from direct flames so it doesn't burn I would think. Fresh garlic and lemon juice go well with rosemary as well.

Lavaca, I've eaten anchovies twice and sardines once. If made to eat either again, I would reluctantly pick the sardines. (The second time I tried anchovies I was in a mule deer camp in West Texas. Luckily the guns were locked-up or I would have ended it right there.)

Muzza, I think you are correct about the quality of the lamb. I was eating a lamb dish at an Indian food restaurant lately in North Texas. When the owner came around to see how we were doing, I commented on the great lamb dish. He said the trick is to get Australian or New Zealand lamb. Since I didn't "lead" him to that answer, I think there is something to it. I will be buying the lamb from a meat market, so I hope I skip some of the preservation "treatments". I don't expect that my lamb will be from your part of the world.

I'm going to try the rosemary in the fire box and see what happens. Jim@ may have put the kiss-of-death on me, because I'm going to put the rosemary on the fire dry. I know he's probably right about soaking it and placing it in the cook-chamber.

After typing that last sentence, it sounds even better his way.

Before putting the meat in the smoker I may add some rosemary both ways and just see what aroma comes off of it; then make up my mind. No use ruining a good piece of lamb.

If you buy your lamb from the US or from down under and if the cut is a leg with the bone removed I suggest opening the leg up and cut out as much silver skin, left over tendon etc. When you open the leg as described it's easier to hit the temp range you're looking for without one part being over done and others under done.

Obviously everyone has his or her own preferences but I like to lay the lamb leg out fat side down, squeeze lemon juice, then heavy on the salt and pepper then a ton of fresh chopped garlic and some fresh rosemary then smoke it fat side down. I use a thermometer checking the smaller areas first and when the desired temp is reached will cut and remove the smaller stuff first then the bigger pieces so everything is a fairly uniform temp. When finished with the cooking part will squeeze more lemon juice and re-season if needed.

Lots of ways to smoke/cook lamb, go with what you know and are comfortable with.

What is your normal finish temperature for lamb?

I was also considering a lamb shoulder rather than the leg. I've heard it has more fat, and isn't as dry once cooked. What are your thoughts?

Wish I was more scientific but the short answer is when the leg reaches 140 degrees. Lamb shoulder would allow longer smoke time and give the fat time to render and tenderize. Please share your results especially if you use the rosemary as a smoking agent.

Scientific post ?
My mother had a rosemary plant [easy to grow in a pot] that wasn't doing well. They were to go on vacation so my mother put the plant in the car .Off they went to New England for two weeks ! When they came back they and the rosemary were doing very well !! LOL

Apologies, I was distracted when I skimmed over Kensco's question and thought he was asking something different, disregard the "scientific" gibberish part, thanks.

I plan to smoke a lamb shoulder, with rosemary either in the cooking chamber or the fire box, on the 4th. I have a little problem. I haven't found a lamb shoulder. My favorite meat market doesn't sell shoulders, nor bone-in leg of lamb for that matter. My back-up doesn't sell lamb, period. I know a couple places that sell halal, surely they will have it. Tomorrow I'm going to try Whole Foods and Kroger, then head south to the halal (Muslim) markets.

I'm back on track. I took the easy way out and stopped by the closest Whole Foods. They had bone-in lamb shoulder chops. I told them I wanted a full shoulder square-cut, and they came back with a bone-in Dorper lamb shoulder (6.2 pounder for $8.99/lb.) Seemed expensive at $55.74.

Dorper is a South African breed, but this lamb was born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorper

The recipe I decided to go with is a modified version of this -

http://www.macsbbq.com/pulled_lamb_shoulder

If this doesn't workout, I'm blaming Mac. The lamb is prepped and in the refrigerator.

Prep - Trimmed excess fat and picked at some silverskin. Coated the lamb with olive oil and covered the lamb with Cabela's Sweet Rib Rub. I then laid the shoulder on cling wrap, and spritzed it with my modified Lamb Dip.

Lamb Dip - Two cups water, One Cup Bud Light Lime, 1/3 cup Worcestershire Sauce, 1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar, 1/3 cup Espiritu de Ecuador, 1/3 Cup Maple Syrup.

After spritzing and wrapping the lamb shoulder I immediately cleaned the counter and mopped the floor before my wife got home from shopping. (Probably the most important part of the prep.)

The cook is going to take place Friday afternoon. I'll rock the temperature between 225 and 250F. I'll put the rosemary sprigs in the cooking chamber when I put the lamb in. By two hours in, I expect to have the shoulder wrapped in foil and then continue the cook until the internal temperature is between 190 and 195F. I'm guessing the lamb will be on the smoker for six (6) hours, and maybe a 45 minute rest.

If anyone has any thoughts, share them. That will give me one more person to share the blame with. (If I get enough input, I could come out of this totally innocent.)

The lamb turned-out great. It finished like a good pulled-pork. The meat was fork tender; pulled apart by hand. The taste was excellent. Good smoke ring.

Two surprises.

I expected the lamb to finish after six (6) hours at 225 - 250F. It finished in four (4) at an internal temp of 195F.

Secondly, I put a grocery store plastic bag full of rosemary sprigs into the cooking chamber of the smoker when I loaded the lamb. Enough rosemary to where my wife and I both thought the flavor might be overpowering. It wasn't. You could smell the heavy rosemary scent in the smoke coming off the smoker. The rosemary was placed between the lamb and the fire box. The chimney on my smoker was on the opposite side of the lamb shoulder. Neither my wife nor I could discern a rosemary taste to the lamb when eaten. Our daughter and her husband didn't pick the taste up either.

I liked the lamb dip I used, but added my wife's BBQ sauce as well to the finished product. The BBQ sauce helped, or maybe it is just a personal preference.

The next lamb I do will probably be a leg, but this shoulder recipe worked great. I've probably got enough meat for 6 or 8 pulled lamb sandwiches resting in the fridge now.

For people that think they don't like lamb, this would change your mind.

i like to do similar to muzza (no anchovies though) by poking holes in the meat and placing sprigs of rosemary and garlic in them

I just bought Icelandic lamb for $ 40 bucks from my friend. Of course I had to kill it, bleed it, cut it...
Fun, except nobody wanted to hang around and watch
Thanks guys for some great ideas
Oh and best way to eat sardines is chop some onion, butter and sardines and mix it in bowl, then spread it on bread and voila, great afternoon meal

I gotta agree with Muzza on this - when used correctly, anchovies will not even be noticable in most dishes, but will definitely impart an amazing quality to them. Anchovies are one of those things that add a very savory, mouth-watering level - the Japanese call it "umami."