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Slow-Cooked Lamb Shoulder

Slow-cooked lamb shoulder is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser! Wonderfully tender, flavoursome and succulent meat made for sharing.
You can apply the marinade to the meat up to 2 days in advance.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time5 hours 30 minutes
Marinade time, up to2 days
Servings: 6
Author: Hangry Miss

Equipment

  • Baking dish, large enough to take the whole lamb shoulder with a snug fit. Something with a lip will make it easier to secure the foil.
  • Extra-wide foil handy for covering the meat. You can overlap two standard sheets of foil to make it large enough if you don't have extra wide.

Ingredients

  • lamb shoulder on the bone

Marinade

  • teaspoon whole cumin seeds (note)
  • teaspoon whole coriander seeds
  • teaspoon whole fennel seeds
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • teaspoon whole black peppercorns
  • pinch cayenne pepper/chilli powder
  • 2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
  • leaves from two rosemary sprigs
  • ½ teaspoon rock salt, (or 4g of any type of salt)
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • about 600ml cold water

Gravy

  • Pan juices
  • 2 Tablespoons cornflour
  • 4 Tablespoons cold water

Instructions

Marinade

  • Toast Whole Spices -preheat a dry (unoiled) frying pan over low-medium heat. Add the whole spices. Toast, moving around often until fragrant and a touch darkened. This will only take a minute or so.
    teaspoon whole cumin seeds
    teaspoon whole coriander seeds
    teaspoon whole fennel seeds
    1 cinnamon stick
    teaspoon whole black peppercorns
  • Grind Spices - transfer the toasted spices to a spice grinder/mini food processor. Add the other spices and salt. Grind to a fine powder.
    pinch cayenne pepper/chilli powder
    2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
    leaves from two rosemary sprigs
    ½ teaspoon rock salt, (or 4g of any type of salt)
  • Oil - transfer the ground spice mix to a small bowl. Add the oil and stir through to make a paste.
    2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • Marinade Meat - place the meat in the baking dish. Make deep cuts with a sharp knife all over the top of the meat (through the fat layer and into the meat below). Rub the spice paste all over the top of the meat and work into the cuts with your hands. At this point you can put the meat in the fridge (uncovered) for up to 2 days or proceed to cook.
    lamb shoulder

On the Day of Serving (around six hours before serving)

  • Preheat Oven - to 120 °C. Remove the meat from the fridge if you haven't already.
  • Water - pour water around the meat (not over the top), enough to come about halfway up the thinnest part of the lamb.
    about 600ml cold water
  • Cover - the meat with a layer of baking paper and then a layer of foil. Allow some space for 'tenting' over the meat, but secure tightly around the rim of the baking dish.
  • Braise - cook the meat for 5 hours. Try not to check on it in-between. Remove from the oven and check for doneness. The meat should yield easily when prodded gently. If not quite there yet, re-cover securely. Cook for another 30 minutes before you recheck. Once done, remove the meat from the oven.
  • Increase Oven Temperature - to 220 °C. With care, pour the pan juices into a heat-resistant glass container. You might need an extra pair of hands to do this with ease. Transfer the pan juices to the fridge. We want the fat to cool and rise to the top. We want to remove this and use the rest of the pan juices to make our gravy.
  • Brown Meat - when the oven is up to temperature, uncover the meat. Reserve the covers for later. Return (uncovered) to the oven. Roast the lamb for 15 minutes, until browned and crisp on the surface. With care, lift the meat out into a plate/dish. Don't throw the baking dish in the sink! We going to use the stuck-on bits of flavour in the bottom of the pan (fond) to add flavour to the gravy.
  • Cornflour 'Slurry' - whisk the cornflour into the water until smooth.
    2 Tablespoons cornflour
    4 Tablespoons cold water
  • Make Gravy - remove and discard the fat layer from the top of the pan juices by spooning it off. Pour the rest into a frying pan/large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add a little of the hot liquid to the stuck on bits in the lamb pan. Use a flat-ended wooden spatula to scrape and loosen everything. Pour everything into the gravy saucepan. Whisk in the cornflour slurry. Reduce until thick enough for your liking, stirring every so often. If you want to thicken the gravy further, repeat step 11. Strain and pour into a gravy jug for serving.
    Pan juices
  • Shred - using tongs or a couple of forks, roughly shred the meat. You might want to remove and discard any large sections of 'jellified' fat as you do this.

Notes

If you don't have whole cumin, coriander, fennel, peppercorns or cinnamon stick, go ahead and substitute with the ground equivalents.  You'll need less, about ½ teaspoon of each.
 
Variations
You can adjust the marinade to whatever suits the rest of the meal. For example, try substituting 2 teaspoons of dried oregano for the cumin and coriander. Let’s face it, the meat would be yummy cooked only using salt and pepper!
 
Leftovers/Freezing
Remove any leftover meat from the bones. Try and keep the chunks large to limit drying out. If planning to eat over the next three days, you can refrigerate. Or you can freeze in a small zip-lock bag with excess air squeezed out. Frozen meat will be good for up to 3 months. The same applies to leftover gravy.
You can completely cook, cool and freeze a whole lamb shoulder in advance. I once completely over-catered and cooked two lamb shoulders for crowd. One wasn’t needed at all, so I froze it. All you need to do: closely and completely wrap the meat in baking paper, then foil to freeze. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Transfer to a baking dish covered in baking paper and foil. Warm through in a 130°C oven for around an hour until hot again. Perhaps not quite as good, but pretty close!