What follows is my 3rd and final review of the Cobb Cooker. At this point, I can say I am overwhelmingly happy with this unit and it's lived up to every cooking challenge I've undertaken so far.
For this 3rd outing I did a boneless leg of lamb...this one was 4-lbs.
I started by peeling back, best I could, the netting from each end and trimming the thicker fat layers, leaving a thin sheet of fat layer on top. I then cut 7 Kalamada olives (black olives) into slivers and froze them. Then cut 6 cloves of garlic into slivers, and took two sprigs of fresh Rosemary and broke those into short sections with stem and a few attached leaves.
Next, take a slender knife blade and stab holes a couple of inches deep, 1" apart, spaced evenly around the lamb roast. Into each hole you stuff a couple of slivers of each flavor. Meaning two slivers of garlic in one hole, two slivers of Kalamada olive in the next hole (freezing them helps this), and a sprig of Rosemary in the next hole, alternating...each hole getting a different flavor.
Next, you brush the outside of the lamb roast with a coating of extra virgin olive oil, and then sprinkle evenly with a liberal coat of "Herbs de Province"...an herb mixture you can find in the grocer, or I will later add a blend recipe you can do yourself. Pat this herb layer in well with your hand :
Now, off to the Cobb Cooker, that I had prior prepared with [8 coals of real hardwood coals]. I had to estimate somewhat this time, as I had three coal chunks that were average bricket size or larger, but the rest were smaller pieces...so I might use 3 or 4 smaller pieces as one coal. I started these in a chimney starter, and basically when I dumped it into the Cobb fire basket it almost had filled the basket evenly across the top. Then I placed the basket into the cooker (the supplied Cobb Cooker handle is used). I also had soaked a good handful of hickory chips in water and had a smoker pack in foil with many punched holes I placed on top of the coals.
Ready to go !
In the moat of the Cobb, I had poured in 1-1/4 cups of water and 3/4 cup of red wine, along with 3 sprigs of Rosemary (each 3" long) and 4 or 5 slivers of garlic I had left over from stuffing the lamb roast.
Fashion yourself, with 4 or 5 sprigs of fresh Rosemary (rubberband the stems together at the end), a basting brush, and while cooking, every 40 minutes you baste the lamb roast with extra virgin olive oil. You want to do this procees as quickly as possible to get the lid back onto the Cobb, as not to lose too much heat.
Here is how the roast was shaping up after about 1 hour of cooking...sorry for the blurred photo. You will notice something I added to the Cobb...I took a pie tin and cut it down around the edges fashioning a "catch pan" to make sure to catch draining juices. Great thing was it fit nicely between the grill surface and the roating rack and did not obstruct any of the air flow holes around the edges - perfect size !
Notice through the air flow holes you can see the coals glowing down below :
During the entire cooking time, I did not add any additional coals to the Cobb, just let the original 8 coals cook throughout. After approx. 2-1/2 hours, here is the roast, along with the pan drippings, ready for slicing and gravy preparation. More important than time, I was shooting for an internal temperature of the roast of 145 degrees, which put it slightly above the medium rare range :
Slicing...looking good. You can see some of the flavors stuffed internally earlier :
Finished product, with my favorite, grilled peppers and mac-and-cheese. I grilled the vegetables on my stove top in a Lodge cast iron grill pan. Added a glass of red wine, and almost hurt myself enjoying a fine meal:
Bon Appetite !!!
Looks great. And that cooker seems to work really well, might have to look into getting one later.
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