Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder for an Australian Christmas

An Australian Christmas is usually too hot for anything that needs babysitting, which is exactly why slow cooked lamb shoulder works. It goes in the oven in the morning, you go to the beach or the backyard, and by lunch it falls off the bone. This lamb shoulder recipe keeps it simple: garlic, rosemary, onions, a splash of liquid and a lot of time.

The knife for this job

Two knives do the work here. The Chef's Kiss 7" Serbian Chef Knife takes care of the prep: slicing garlic, stripping and chopping rosemary, cutting onions into thick rings and scoring the fat cap. The tall blade gives your knuckles room over the board and doubles as a scoop to move everything into the tray. The Mako 7.5" Hand Forged Boning Knife trims the raw shoulder and then works the cooked meat off the bone at the end. If you want a full kit for big cooks like this, the Wolfpack 4 piece chef knife and cleaver set covers it.

You can technically pull lamb with two forks. You can also paint a fence with a toothbrush.

Choosing the shoulder

Buy a bone in lamb shoulder of about 4 to 5 lb (1.8 to 2.3 kg). The bone adds flavour and holds the meat together during the long cook, and the shoulder has enough fat and connective tissue to turn soft and juicy after hours in the oven. A leg will dry out on this treatment. The shoulder just gets better.

Trimming with the boning knife

1. Pat the shoulder dry with paper towel.
2. Use the tip of the Mako to take off any loose flaps of fat, stray bits of bone dust from the butcher's saw and any thick hard fat pockets. Leave an even layer of fat on top, about 1/4 inch (6 mm). That fat bastes the meat for hours.
3. Trim any thin flap of meat that hangs off the edge, or tuck it under. Thin bits overcook and turn to jerky long before the rest is ready.

Prep the garlic, rosemary and onions

This is the Chef's Kiss section. A sharp chef knife makes quick, tidy work of it, and a blunt one turns rosemary into a bruised green mess.

1. Peel a full head of garlic. Cut half the cloves into thick slivers and leave the rest whole.
2. Strip the leaves from four sprigs of rosemary and chop them fine. Keep two whole sprigs for the tray.
3. Peel three brown onions, cut off the ends and slice them into thick rings, about 1/2 inch (1 cm). They become the rack the lamb sits on and melt into the sauce.

Score and stud the lamb

Turn the shoulder fat side up. Score the fat in a crosshatch about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart, cutting through the fat but not deep into the meat. Use the tip of the knife to make small slits all over, about 1/2 inch deep, and push a sliver of garlic and a pinch of rosemary into each one. Rub the whole shoulder with olive oil, the chopped rosemary, plenty of salt and black pepper. Do this the night before if you can and leave it in the fridge, uncovered. Take it out an hour before cooking.

Low and slow in the oven

Heat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Spread the onion rings and whole garlic cloves over the base of a heavy roasting tray, add the rosemary sprigs, then pour in 1 cup (250 ml) of white wine and 1 cup (250 ml) of chicken or lamb stock. Sit the shoulder on top, fat side up.

1. Cover the tray tightly with baking paper and then foil, sealing the edges. Steam is doing most of the work for the first stretch, and a loose cover lets it escape.
2. Roast for 4 to 5 hours. Check once around the 3 hour mark and add a splash of water if the tray is drying out.
3. Uncover, turn the oven up to 400°F (200°C) and roast for another 20 to 30 minutes to crisp and brown the fat.

The USDA minimum for whole cuts of lamb is 145°F (63°C) with a 3 minute rest, so safety is long behind you by now. For pulling, you want the inside at about 195 to 205°F (90 to 96°C), where the connective tissue has broken down. The real test is simple: a bone that wiggles loose with a gentle tug. If it still resists, cover it and give it another 30 minutes. Lamb shoulder has never once been ready at the time the recipe promised.

Rest, then pull

Rest the shoulder in the tray, loosely covered, for 20 minutes. Meanwhile tip the tray juices into a jug, let the fat rise and spoon it off. The onions and garlic underneath are worth squashing into the juices for a quick sauce.

Pulling the meat off the bone

Move the shoulder to a large board. Pull out the blade bone first, it should slide straight out. Then use the Mako to follow the remaining bones and separate the meat into big natural pieces along the seams. The narrow, flexible blade gets into the gaps around the joint where tongs and forks just tear. Lift out any gristle or hard fat as you go, then break the meat into chunks rather than shredding it to threads. Big pieces stay juicier on the plate.

Pour some of the skimmed juices back over the meat and season with a little more salt. Serve it on a platter with flatbreads, a sharp salad and something cold to drink.

Serving it for a crowd

A 4 to 5 lb (1.8 to 2.3 kg) shoulder feeds about six people as the main event. If you have a bigger crowd, cook two side by side in the same tray and add a little extra liquid. Leftovers make very good sandwiches on Boxing Day with some mint sauce or yoghurt.

If you want more on the blade that does the pulling, read our guide on what a boning knife is used for, or browse the boning and fillet knives.