baby lamb leg

P.S. Any butcher worth his or her salt will be able to roll and tie it to a perfectly even density for you.

I wrote a blog post on cooking/roasting meats; it's pretty universal:

http://wp.me/p27pPl-Kx

could be those rogue food52 algorithms...

I did tight it with a kitchen twine and then wrapped in foil. I bet you are right about it being a reason for overcooking though. I thought it would make it more moist, but it..) I made the bigger lamb for Christmas actually (marinated in yogurt...) and we had to cook it smth like 2 hours more than the recipe called for (fortunately guests had other food to snack on)), but it was finally done it tasted great ( pink in the middle and moist). I'll submit the recipe, didn't take pictures though. Thank you so much for all the advice;)

Almost) I overcooked a little bit. We just moved and the new oven is a little off i think...Anyways, it still tastes good. So what I did was: I butterflied it and spread garlic scape pesto on the inside of it, then rolled up and tightened and wrap in plastic wrap. I let it sit/marinate for a few hours in the fridge (actually on the counter at first since I thought I'd cook it for lunch, but had to move it to the fridge and make it for dinner). When I was ready to cook it, I seasoned it with salt/pepper and my favorite mix of herbs for the lamb (mint, oregano..). I browned all sides of it on the pan, moved it to the aluminium foil (placed on the rack, on a tray), then cooked onion wedges in the same pan for another 4 minutes. I arranged onion on top and on the sides of the lamb and wrapped it all in the foil. I cooked it for an hour in 350 degrees oven and it came out 150F. But there was a lot of liquid too, so I sliced it and poured the drippings on top of it to make it more moist. It could be better, but it's ok;)

Sounds like a good first try. If you can obtain that same spring lamb again, beata Lei! It could be your oven calibration but I think the problem with internal temp is actually the foil wrap. Other than that it sounds like you did everything right. Next time try tieing it up with kitchen twine and cook it on a rack in roasting pan. This will allow you test for doneness (again no more than 130F)and also to baste it. If you need instruction on how to tie, Merrill did a video that's probably still lurking on the site. She does it exactly the way I was taught years and years ago. But you are on the right path, Daria.

Haggis is actually pretty good if you travel north of Hadrian's Wall. A bit of an acquired taste though.

jsdunbar, that's quite correct. It begins with the stomach but the traditional filling includes oats as well as "lamb's lights"---lungs, minced up.

Still more on haggis from Robert Burns, "Address to a Haggis": But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread. Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He'll make it whissle... I was thinking of trying to translate that from Scots into Italian but not right now. Haggis one of the world's oldest "sausages". Possibly the Caledonians got the idea from the Romans. I don't know.

In Rome there is a classic dish in the 'quinto quarto' style, pagliata di vitello (pajata in roman dialect) which is essentially veal intestines which carry kind of a soured milk taste. Even my Roman friends have trouble with this one.

I meant I was the idiot, not my Auntie Brigid! Someone here had the good humuor to ask me in a private message what was served alongside the frolicking lamb. (I'm still cracking up.) It was Greyhound cabbage, which I don't think seeds are sold for in the USA but I'd have to go look it up. The heart of the cabbage is a pointed snout, like a greyhound's muzzle, which you serve in one conical piece, the same as it grows - very tender so no need to separate the leaves. And new potatoes with butter, parsley, salt and pepper. Up Cavan lambs. (i.e., Cheers to the lambs of County Cavan).

Another thought, and avert your eyes if you are squemish. But in Italy and most of Europe young lamb is slaughtered at a very tender age, they are still feeding on their mother's milk so they haven't tasted grass yet. That's kind of what makes it special. But if you want to respect the animal you should be willing to eat all the edible parts including and not exclusive to, heart, kidney, intestine (sausage casing), lungs (there's your haggis) and so on. I mean it. Respect the animal that died for your dinner and don't waste it.

thank you! that's pretty much what I did (it's in the oven now).

Daria, hopefully your lambster turned out well. It's a crime to waste such a good product.

nope, boneless one. so I woke up with an idea of may be butterflying it and spread some garlic scape pesto inside of it...