You could be forgiven for thinking the last person to roast a leg of lamb in America was Julia Child and she hasn’t been with us for 20 years. The roast has been fading ever since for no good reason, falling out of fashion like crème caramel or gougères.

A leg of lamb poses two challenges. Time—the interior easily overshoots the optimal rosy pinkness before the outside is nicely brown—and seasoning. Lamb craves strong flavors, something more than Child’s classic mustard, garlic, rosemary combo.

Reverse searing—starting low and slow, then finishing with high heat—solved the cooking problem. We cooked the lamb at 250°F to 115°F, well shy of rare, then cranked the heat to 450°F to brown. For the sear, the best approach was removing the roast, cranking up the heat and then returning it—we ended up with a well-browned exterior and evenly cooked medium-rare meat.

For seasoning inspiration, we looked around the world—Morocco’s slow-cooked lamb with ras el hanout, preserved lemon and olives, India’s yogurt-and-spice marinades. But it was Italian porchetta, the hearty roasted pork from Italy’s hill towns, that held the answer.

Porchetta’s bold blend of fennel seed, garlic, rosemary, oregano, lemon zest and chilies, ground together and bound with olive oil and a touch of honey (to enhance browning) translates well to lamb’s strong, sweet flavor. Applied for an hour before roasting sufficed; 24 hours was better.

One caveat: the rendered juices and fat at the bottom of the roasting pan burned during the high-heat finale. The fix? Nestling sliced Yukon Gold potatoes into the pan. Result: an effortless side dish.

Matthew Card

Matthew Card is Milk Street’s Creative Director for Recipes and Products, resident coffee geek, knife collector and equipment junkie. He has 25-plus years of professional cooking, recipe development, food writing and teaching under his belt. When he’s not in the Milk Street kitchen or on the road hunting for new recipes and ideas, Matthew lives with his family in Canberra, Australia, where he does his best to dodge kangaroos on his mountain bike and is learning to love Vegemite.