Iberia · Volume 07, The Roast, the Pot and the Acorn Line
Lechazo Asado
Castile and León
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 3 hours
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Castile and León, the IGP-protected milk-fed lamb, and the Aranda de Duero oven method.
As tradition built it
About 3 hours total
Ingredients
- 1 lechazo (milk-fed lamb), no older than 35 days, live weight 9 to 12 kg, Churra, Castellana or Ojalada breed
- 1 to 2 glasses (about 200 to 400ml) water
- A generous pinch, rubbed in a little salt
- A light coating, rubbed over the skin, if using manteca, optional
Method
- Season the lechazo with nothing but water and a little salt, some cooks adding manteca.
- Roast in a wood-fired oven held around 180°C, heated slowly all morning on encina wood seasoned a full year, in a wide cazuela de barro.
- Roast roughly 45 minutes flesh-side up, then 45 minutes skin-side up, about 3 hours total, on the stated local principle that slower is always better.
What a modern chef changes
Sous vide quarter, then a Big Green Egg finish
Rung 3
Method
- Hold the whole quarter at a controlled 60°C sous vide bath for several hours before finishing, guaranteeing an even, blush-pink doneness edge to edge that a wood oven's uneven heat cannot promise on every service.
- Finish skin-side in a Big Green Egg at high heat for the final stage, per rung three, for genuine char and crackle without risking the interior overcooking while the outside catches up.
- Reduce the pan juices with a splash of Ribera del Duero and a little of the reserved sous vide bag liquid into a tight jus, spooned rather than poured.