Crown Roast for Christmas

  • I was going to do a porchetta for Xmas but now I’m thinking I will do a Crown Roast. I’ve never seen these before, nor has Mrs Bilda, but it’s essentially 2 or 3 rib racks tied to make a circle with the rib bones pointing up. Either pork or lamb, but I’m leaning towards frenched lamb.

    https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/how-to…iday-roast.html


    22 people so probably will do either 3 racks of 8. So a crown of 24 ribs.

    different preparations have either the sinew side of the rib to the interior or the outside. I don’t know which way would be best. I plan to cook on the Kamado with the stone setup as indirect cook. My instinct is to put the sinew side to the outside?

    definitely no stuffing. I’m thinking cook slowly with a hot finish.

    I’ve not decided on glaze or sauce.

    I wnt be putting those silly rib paper caps on that’s for sure!

    Keen to get any tips please!!

  • That’s the one @gourmetgalaxy

    They look superb from a presentation view.

    Do you think a set of 24 would fit in my Akorn?

    My butcher is a young guy so he hadn’t done one in his shop. He tried to steer me to a porcchetta lol (I was thinking pork crown at that time)..

    Any tips on telling my butcher how to do? Sinew side facing inside our out? Any other tips?

  • They look superb from a presentation view...….with those silly rib paper caps... :biglol:

    Do you think a set of 24 would fit in my Akorn?

    Yep should no problem.

    Any tips on telling my butcher how to do?

    Not that hard really....he will be more than capable I am sure.

    Z Grill MINI.....Aldi Gasser.......Thermoworks Smoke...., Masterbuilt portable Charcoal Grill.

  • I would cook indirect at a constant temp. 150c. Wouldn't take very long I would think. A few big spoonfuls of savory couscous, (rosemary, mint, garlic etc) for service presentation for more Wow!. Crusty loaf, red wine. Fart & go to sleep. Perfect.
    23 people???

    Jumbuck 7 burner with hood. Baby Weber kettle. 52" Kettle. Weber Go Anywhere. 5' SS Spit rotisserie. Offset smoker. Akorn Kamado. :) ASMOKE AS500N. Hibachi.:bbq:

  • I would cook indirect at a constant temp. 150c. Wouldn't take very long I would think. A few big spoonfuls of savory couscous, (rosemary, mint, garlic etc) for service presentation for more Wow!. Crusty loaf, red wine. Fart & go to sleep. Perfect.
    23 people???

    I think you are on the money... but hard to get a sear / crust.

    Yes you are right regarding timing, although a lot of meat it is thin cross section.

    I’ll also adopt your suggestion and add couscous and I’m thinking with cranberry and raisins and maybe roasted pine nut.

    A rich gravy also.

    Yeah 23ish wife and I, my mum, my in-laws, brother and SIL, my brother’ in-laws, various cousins and uncles / aunts. Various kids of all the above... this is a small year sometimes more kids

    We’ll also have a baked ham, roast turkey buff and cold chicken breasts, prawns mangos, oysters, salads... pudding and trifle... everyone gets tasked up to bring something

    Edited once, last by Bilda (November 13, 2019 at 10:10 AM).

  • Tieing the crown - method

    I ordered a crown roast (3 rack) from the butcher and was super disappointed by the preparation done so I undid it and did it myself. The butcher did nothing more than French the racks and put some elastic bands between the rib bones that joined each rack. Complete trash butchering.

    I got it home. Sighed in disappointment ripped off the bands and tidied up the frenching.

    On the positive side, the meat was beautiful Tasmanian lamb.

    I decided to tie them traditionally.

    Here’s the method to tie them.

    Season. I decided on 0.75% of salt by weight (inc bone) of the ribs. Poke in slivers of garlic.

    Score a shallow slash in the meat directly under the bone to hold the string in place. Not too deep!

    I assembled them around a can wrapped in alfoil. The can will be later removed. Using natural cooking twine I put it in the groove. I wrapped the string twice and tied off then snipped the ends.

    After removing the can I made up my own method of tieing the bones in to keep the shape. I’m not sure if this is normally how it’s done. I took the twine around twice in a cross-weave around the bones. Worked ripper.

    Edited 2 times, last by Bilda (December 27, 2021 at 7:14 AM).

  • So after two long years here is my Lamb Crown Roast.

    That's what I would call low and very slow ^^

    Big Green Egg - Asmoke Pellet Grill - Weber Kettle - Maximus Pizza Oven - Dragon Hibachi - Ziggy Portable - baby kamado - Grillz 2 burner - Cobb BBQ - Converted Gas Bottle Spit - Charbroil Grill2go - Anova sous vide - Digi Q controller - plus Tip Top Temp - Smokeware cap - Grill Grates

  • Cooking

    I decided to go with an indirect roast in the Weber kettle. I have a kamado but have been using the kettle so much lately I didn’t even think of using the Kamado. Im happy with this choice.

    Target temp was 180c (350f) so I went with 100 beads in the chimney and and set the top and bottom vents to half. I put another couple of handfuls of fresh beads in the baskets and dumped the hot coals in.

    I used a foil lined tray under my cooking zone as a reflector and some foil on the grill as a deflector to create a simple 2-zone setup.

    Hit and held temp pretty easy with some minor adjustment. Used my wireless temp monitor to keep an eye on it.

    Once up to temp I loaded the crown in such a way that it lined up with the lid vent in the centre of the crown, trying to draft hot air up the inside of the crown. This worked great.

    I used foil to protect the rib bones from burning as well.

    Using a second temp probe I cooked till I hit 55c internal (about 4 minutes).

    In the meantime I cooked up the stuffing. I didn’t want to cook the ribs already stuffed as it would mean the ribs would be overdone by the time the stuffing was warm. So I stuffed it afterwards.


    The stuffing was cooked and when finished was 80c so this was perfect to help with some “carry-over” cooking to finish the ribs and keep them warm. So I didn’t tent the ribs and they got to rest while I spooned in the stuffing.

    Total cook time was about 40 minutes.


    Smashed potatoes on the board, olives on the rib tips, stuffing inside and some lemon for acid and colour. I think it looked great! I was very happy by this point.

    I was even happier when carving up for my guests. A perfect medium-rare. The beautiful tassie lamb was great at this level of doneness. Soft and melt in your mouth.

    Most guests took two of the ribs. We also had baked ham, warmed crusty bread and salads. This course followed a selection of cold and hot seafood (including scallops in the shell done in the Weber).

    If I did again I would add a jus to finish the lamb on the plate.

    Thanks for looking! Merry Christmas to all.

    Edited 2 times, last by Bilda (December 27, 2021 at 8:43 AM).

  • Here is the recipe for the stuffing. It was great and guests all commented on how nice it was.

    As noted above I ignored the part about stuffing before cooking and did it separately on the stovetop and spooned it in after cooking.

    Stuffed Crown Roast of Lamb (Korona Arniou Gemisti) Recipe
    This recipe is by Dena Kleiman and takes 2 hours 15 minutes. Tell us what you think of it at The New York Times - Dining - Food.
    cooking.nytimes.com

    I used 12ft to get past the paywall.

    12ft |

  • I’m surprised at the number of heat beads, that’s a lot but the proof is in the pudding, the result looked perfect.

    Thanks for such a detailed post, great work. :clap:

    Big Green Egg - Asmoke Pellet Grill - Weber Kettle - Maximus Pizza Oven - Dragon Hibachi - Ziggy Portable - baby kamado - Grillz 2 burner - Cobb BBQ - Converted Gas Bottle Spit - Charbroil Grill2go - Anova sous vide - Digi Q controller - plus Tip Top Temp - Smokeware cap - Grill Grates

  • P

    I’m surprised at the number of heat beads, that’s a lot but the proof is in the pudding, the result looked perfect.

    thanks mate. I was surprised at the quantity too. I cheated and used a website, the first one I googled.

    I’d link it but it’s a US site that’s gone full on alt-right with outrageous claims made in the banner of each page.

    The temperature held very well for me, super stable. But it seems like a lot of fuel and I still had coal glowing hours later after shutting it down. I couldn’t put the cover on it last night some 6 hours after shutdown.

    I’d be happy for a more conservative approach to briquette numbers and vent settings if there is a recommended resource.

  • I’d be happy for a more conservative approach to briquette numbers and vent settings if there is a recommended resource.

    I think the USA sites generally refer to Kingsfords as the fuel and we all know from testing that they don't last anywhere near as well as our own Heat Beads or Hot Shots. 100 of them would equal 70 of ours I reckon.

    In the days when i did a Weber kettle roast every Sunday, I used 32 in each basket and that got up to around 190-200c and easily held there the couple of hours I needed to do a leg of lamb. I've also got a Smokenator for the kettle which is essentially for low and slow but I used it often for roasting too. It's basically one enclosed basket so it gave me a lot more cooking area. I'd only have maybe 30-40 in there as well.

    I think if you fill one basket to the top, that would be ample fuel for any roast.

    Big Green Egg - Asmoke Pellet Grill - Weber Kettle - Maximus Pizza Oven - Dragon Hibachi - Ziggy Portable - baby kamado - Grillz 2 burner - Cobb BBQ - Converted Gas Bottle Spit - Charbroil Grill2go - Anova sous vide - Digi Q controller - plus Tip Top Temp - Smokeware cap - Grill Grates

  • Top notch cook up mate. I'm heading out today to get lamb now... :yum)

    Love the olives btw.

    Jumbuck 7 burner with hood. Baby Weber kettle. 52" Kettle. Weber Go Anywhere. 5' SS Spit rotisserie. Offset smoker. Akorn Kamado. :) ASMOKE AS500N. Hibachi.:bbq:

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