How to Cook a Leg of Lamb over a Firepit

Here are the sections of How to Cook a Leg of Lamb over a Firepit in case you need to skip back to anything:

First, check whether your firepit or Kadai is OK to cook on, especially if it's your first cook of the season. If there's any old ash in there that's wet, or the Kadai beads or firepit stones are damp, we first need to build a drying fire.

We do that by building a Jenga style stack in the firepit using a mix of our Beech Wood Cooking Splits and thicker 25cm British Kiln-Dried Logs, then lighting it with some Hardwood Kindling and Natural Firelighters.

Find them all in our Kadai Firebowl Cooking Fuel Kit

Attach the tripod to your Kadai or firepit and let the wood burn down a little bit.

While the fire burns, go inside and make a simple basting liquid using British rapeseed oil, lemon juice, a tiny bit of red wine vinegar and pepper then tie some fresh thyme, rosemary and sage together to make a little basting brush, which we will use later.

Set them both aside for now, don't add them to the lamb yet!

Go back outside and check on your fire. Once it's burning nice and clean, we're ready to start.

We want to cook the lamb from both sides of the fire bowl, so wearing heatproof gloves, use a poker to split the fire in two and make sure both sides are burning.

Once you have two fires burning either side, it's time to get the lamb hung. Put the hook through the flesh at the bone end - bear in mind that the lamb will soften as it cooks and you don't want to lose it into the fire!

Check the temperatures on each fire and make sure they're roughly even - you don't want to burn the lamb on one side and undercook it on the other. If the heat is too high, move the fire further to the side of the bowl, if it's too low, add another Beech Wood Cooking Split for a blast of heat.

Put a cast iron or other high-heat proof dish in the bottom of the firepit, underneath the lamb to catch all those beautiful juices!

Now you have two jobs while the lamb cooks - keep the fire burning at the same intensity and manage the heat exposure to the lamb by moving it vertically up and down as necessary.

Add more wood as needed, and move the lamb closer to the fire when you need more intense heat. This gets easier with practice, so don't worry if you don't get it exactly right first time - lamb cooked over your firepit will still be delicious!

Once there's a bit of colour on the lamb, it's time to add the baste. Leave it hung, but lift it slightly higher so it's out of the fire, and use your herb brush to add the liquid baste mix all over the lamb leg. Don't worry about it being even or scientific, or if it drips into the pan collecting your juices in the firepit below.

The lamb will obviously be cooking faster at the bottom than at the top, so once the bottom is nearly cooked we need to flip and re-hang it. Using a meat probe, check the top and bottom and flip it when the bottom reads about 60°c, if cooking it to Medium. 

Using heatproof gloves, take the lamb off the hook, turn it upside down and rehang so the lesser cooked part is at the bottom closer to the fire.

Once the lamb is re-hung, we need to manage the fire again. You should have a big bed of hot embers at this point, so you don't necessarily need a roaring flame. 

Make sure the lamb is cooking evenly and if you see any parts are cooking faster than others, adjust the height or direction of the lamb, or move your fire around the firepit or Kadai bowl.

Keep checking the temperature at different parts of the lamb with a meat probe and when it's reading between 60 - 65°c all over, it's ready to take off the fire and rest.

Let the lamb rest under some foil on a clean chopping board for 20 - 30 minutes and you're ready to carve. We promise it will be the most delicious lamb you've ever cooked!

If you still aren't sure which charcoal or smoking wood to buy, just send us an email on info@love-logs.com and we'll do our best to help!

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