Roasting Small Pieces of Lamb

• Small pieces of lamb, such as lamb chops or cubes cut for kebabs, cook quickly and can dry out if exposed to heat for too long. These cuts only need seven to 12 minutes under the broiler, turning after four or five minutes.

Lamb Roasts

• Oven roast large lean pieces of lamb, fat-side up at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down and continue roasting at 350 F. This method requires about 25 minutes per pound. For fattier cuts, roast the lamb at 325 F for 30 minutes per pound. These times will produce meat that is medium-rare. Check the meat with an instant read thermometer before cooking longer if medium or well-done meat is desired.

Leg of Lamb

• Leg of lamb is best cooked rare to medium-rare, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends cooking it to at least 145 F for food safety reasons, which produces medium-cooked lamb. Because of the irregular shape of the leg, some parts will be more cooked than others. Roast a bone-in leg of lamb at 325 F. A 5- to 7-pound leg of lamb requires 20 to 25 minutes per pound, and a larger leg of lamb needs 15 to 20 minutes per pound. A boneless leg of lamb needs 25 to 30 minutes per pound. Following these cooking times, you will end up with some parts of the leg cooked well-done, while the largest part of the meat will be cooked to medium doneness. If you like your lamb rare to medium-rare, shave five to seven minutes off the cooking time per pound.

Determining Doneness

• The best way to determine when lamb is done is to use an instant read thermometer, inserted into the largest part of the meat without touching bone. Remove the meat from the oven when the temperature reaches 110 F for rare lamb, 120 F for medium-rare and 145 F for medium-well lamb. The temperature will rise another 10 degrees while the meat rests. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends cooking lamb roasts to 145 F. Beyond this temperature the meat starts to dry out.