Lamb is a tender and tasty meat, but if improperly prepared, it can have an unpleasant specific smell. To avoid this result, you need to know a few secrets of product processing. You will have to not only figure out how to pickle lamb, but also learn about the features of choosing meat, washing, combining it with spices and many other important details.

Secrets of pickling lamb so that the meat is soft

The first step is to choose the right meat. The piece should be red. Shades are allowed any - from the lightest to darkest. But the purchase of gray or brown meat is immediately worth giving up.

As for the smell, lamb should have only a light specific aroma, and not at all strong and beating in the nose from afar. Although some inexperienced cooks associate the latter with good fresh meat.

For cooking at home and on the grill, the lamb bones on the bones, ham and delicate "saddle" - the lumbar are most often used.

  • Lamb is considered the only type of meat that should not be washed with ice-cold running water. It is better to simply dip and wipe the selected piece well with paper towels. And further processing of meat will consist in the removal of films, tendons and other unnecessary inedible parts.
  • To make the meat soft and juicy in any version of the dish, it should be thawed before pickling only at room temperature. Next - immediately start cooking.
  • If you plan to fry the meat pieces, then everyone needs to be laid in a frying pan with the fat down. This will make the treat especially tender.

Deciding to pickle lamb skewers or prepare meat for any other dish, you need to remember that it is very fond of a variety of marinades. If it is fresh, it will be enough to leave a piece in a fragrant liquid with seasonings for about 1 - 1.5 hours. If the lamb is older, it will have to marinate for at least 12 hours.

Strongly odorous meat can be left for a day in coolness, previously filled with vegetable marinade. The latter is prepared from a mixture of carrot chips, half rings of onion, chopped celery root, cloves of garlic and allspice peas.

How to get rid of the smell

Most often, a strong unpleasant odor in lamb appears as a result of improper slaughter or due to the venerable age of the animal, which was put on meat. But removing it is quite simple.

There are several ways to do this:

  1. Grate a piece of ready mustard, put into a bag, tie tightly and leave it to cool for about 3 - 3.5 hours.
  2. If the hostess does not have a few hours left, you can act even easier - send the prepared meat to boiling water. After about a quarter of an hour, you should change the water, after which boil the mutton as much.
  3. Soak the meat in milk. It is very important to choose a home product. The lamb will need to be fully covered and left in cool for a couple of hours. After the recommended time, it remains only to rinse the pieces and grate with fresh garlic.
  4. By analogy with milk, you can soak the lamb in yogurt or light beer. You need to act exactly the same way.
  5. Soak the meat and just in salt water. A large handful of coarse salt is dissolved in 1 liter of liquid for this purpose. After an hour, the meat can be removed. After such soaking, it must be washed with clean, unsalted water.

In general, any marinade with a lot of spices and aromatic herbs helps get rid of the unpleasant odor of lamb. The longer the product spends in it, the better the result.

Sometimes, so that there is no smell, it is enough to cut off all the fat from a meat piece.

Classic Vinegar Marinade

Acetic acid perfectly softens the type of meat under discussion. Most often, such a recipe is used for the subsequent preparation of barbecue. The ingredients are designed for approximately 1.5 kg of lamb.

Ingredients:

  • medium onion - 2 heads;
  • lemon - 1 pc.;
  • vinegar - 1 tbsp. l .;
  • any vegetable oil, spices, salt and pepper.

Cooking:

  1. Cut pre-prepared meat into pieces suitable for the selected dish.
  2. Chop the onion with ringlets or their halves.
  3. Squeeze all the juice from the lemon. Be sure to strain it from trapped bones.
  4. Send all prepared foods into one large bowl. Send oil and vinegar there too. The amount of vegetable fat should be determined by eye. At 1.5 kg, usually 1 to 2 tbsp. Is enough. l
  5. Mix everything thoroughly. Pour in your favorite spices. The easiest way to take a ready-made mixture of spices specifically for lamb.
  6. Leave the meat in this composition in cool for about 6 to 7 hours.

If you need to speed up the pickling process, you should leave the lamb just on the table, but for 3 - 3.5 hours.

Recipe for smoking

Hot smoked lamb at home turns out amazingly tasty. But to prepare such a dish requires a special device - a smokehouse. The quantity of products indicated in the recipe is calculated approximately for 1.5 kg of meat.

Ingredients:

  • high-quality olive oil - ½ tbsp .;
  • coarse salt - to taste;
  • dried onions and garlic - a large pinch;
  • a mixture of spices (from nutmeg, chili, paprika, ginger, coriander, cinnamon) - 2 - 3 large pinches.

Cooking:

  1. Most often, experienced cooks choose the lamb shoulder for hot smoking. It needs to be wet and wiped dry with paper towels.
  2. Pour all the olive oil into a separate bowl at once. Add spices, salt. Mix everything thoroughly.
  3. Lubricate the meat shoulder with oil, cover it with a bag / cling film and leave it cool for a couple of hours.

It remains to fill alder sawdust in the smokehouse, cover the bottom of the device with foil and lay a lamb blank on it. Next - act on the selected smoking recipe.

For baking in the sleeve

In a special culinary sleeve, any meat is easy to make soft and tender. This method of baking will make it possible to prepare a delicious dish even from an old piece of lamb.

The main thing is to act strictly according to the prescription. The quantity of products is calculated on 2 kg of meat.

Ingredients:

  • coarse salt (you can take garlic) - 1 tbsp. l .;
  • Dijon mustard in grains - 2 tsp;
  • a mixture of dry Provence herbs - ½ tsp.

 

Cooking:

  1. To pickle meat for baking, first of all, it is necessary to cut off all excess fat from it, as well as remove the films.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix salt and spices. If necessary, grind the latter to a powder.
  3. Spread the resulting salted aromatic mixture with prepared meat, processing it immediately from all sides.
  4. Top carefully cover the lamb with mustard seeds. Leave the meat in this form in cool for 3.5 - 4 hours.

Next, you can hide the pickled lamb in a sleeve and bake it first for 40 minutes at 210 - 220 degrees, and then another half hour at medium temperature. At the very end of cooking, if desired, you can cut the sleeve and wait until the appetizing crust appears on the meat.

How to marinate meat for frying

The fastest way to cook the meat in question is in a pan. In this case, you need to choose the right delicious marinade.

It must be remembered that, for frying lamb, its age is especially important. Young lamb is best suited for such processing.

The number of products is indicated on a pound of meat.

Ingredients:

  • dark wine vinegar - half a liter;
  • vegetable oil - 70 - 80 ml;
  • soy sauce - half a glass;
  • garlic - 2 to 4 cloves;
  • sugar - 5 - 7 g;
  • ground black pepper - 1 pinch.

Cooking:

  1. Beat the liquid ingredients of the recipe with a whisk until smooth.
  2. Add crushed or finely grated garlic and dry ingredients.
  3. Repeat mixing and immerse the mutton pieces in the resulting composition. Do not make them large.
  4. You can add salt to the marinade to taste, but usually it is enough in soy sauce.

If the meat is young, then it will be enough to pickle it for 20 - 25 minutes. Then you can simply fry the lamb in a skillet with hot fat until cooked. If desired, in the process of processing meat in this way, it is allowed to add onion rings, plates of garlic, cubes of sweet pepper and any vegetables to your taste. If there are many of the latter, it will be possible to do without a side dish for meat.

Lamb leg marinade

You’ll have to marinate the lamb leg If the meat is old, then at least 30 - 40 hours. Otherwise, the lamb simply does not have time to soak in the marinade. The first 2 to 3 hours, the leg should stand at room temperature, after which it can be moved to a cool place.

Ingredients:

  • natural yogurt - 1 l;
  • vinegar and lime / lemon juice - 4 tbsp each. l .;
  • salt - 1 tbsp. l .;
  • curry - 1 tsp;
  • turmeric and cardamom - a large pinch.

Cooking:

  1. In order to marinate a lamb leg deliciously, first you need to pour natural yogurt into a deep roomy bowl where all the meat will fit immediately. A dairy product must be without any additives.
    Instead of yogurt, you can use whey or yogurt. But kefir categorically does not suit this recipe.
  2. Pour all dry ingredients into the selected dairy product. Add citrus juice strained from the seeds. Mix everything well.
  3. Grate the resulting composition with meat. As a result, it will acquire a bright orange hue from curry, which will give a beautiful mouth-watering color to a ready-made treat.
  4. Leave the lamb marinated for at least 14 hours. This period is optimal for young meat.

In the process, you need to ensure that all the lamb is covered with marinade.You can periodically mix the contents of the bowl and pour the pieces of meat that peek out from it with an aromatic mixture.

Cooking in the Caucasus

In the Caucasus, cooks are very fond of adding pomegranate juice to any meat marinade. Fruit acids from it quickly soften the meat fibers, making lamb as tender and juicy as possible. Marinade with such an additive gives the meat a noble taste. The main thing is to choose natural juice.

The number of products is calculated on a pound of meat.

Ingredients:

  • natural pomegranate juice - a full glass;
  • garlic - 3-5 slices;
  • olive oil - 60 - 70 ml;
  • a mixture of spices for lamb - a big pinch.
  • ground black pepper and salt.

Cooking:

  1. Salt and spices are sent to fruit juice. Dissolve salted granules in it.
  2. Add chopped garlic in any convenient way.
  3. Pour olive oil.
  4. Mix everything thoroughly and place the meat pieces in the resulting composition.

In such a lamb marinade, the meat should lie for at least 2.5 to 3 hours. Next, you can cook it in the selected way. For example, bake on the grill.

Option for loin

Marinade for loin should be chosen soft and delicate. He should not interrupt the delicate taste of meat. For this reason, it is not recommended to add vinegar to such a marinade.

The number of products is calculated per 1 kg of loin.

Ingredients:

  • olive oil (quality) - a full glass;
  • onion - 1 head;
  • garlic - 5-6 cloves;
  • Lavrushka - 2 - 3 leaves;
  • a mixture of colored ground peppers - 5 - 6 g;
  • sprig of rosemary - 3 pcs.

 

Cooking:

  1. Before pickling, it is necessary to clean the meat from fat, films and all that is superfluous. Then chop it into small portions.
  2. In a convenient container, mix the oil with ground peppers.
  3. Add chopped garlic into thin slices.
  4. Insert laurel leaves and sprigs of rosemary. Crushing lavrushka is not worth it, otherwise the taste of this ingredient in the mixture will turn out to be too bright.

Dip the meat into the resulting marinade for at least 40 minutes.

In order not to spoil the dish, for pickling it is always worth choosing dishes made of glass or steel. Enamel bowls are also suitable. But copper, plastic or aluminum containers will have to be abandoned. Otherwise, meat after pickling in them can acquire an unpleasant, for example, metallic taste.

When the marinade is prepared for the legs, shoulder blades, ribs, it can be made more tart. But for mutton, cut into pieces, a delicate, light composition without a lot of spices is better.

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