Celebrating Easter: Lay out a holiday feast with lamb as centerpiece

Don Kuzaro Jr., second-generation proprietor of Don & Joe's Meats in the Pike Place Market, sells a lot of lamb. And what he sells is bred in America.

While lamb imported from New Zealand or Australia has a certain cachet, American lambs are more flavorful and tender, and have a higher percentage of meat to bone, says Kuzaro. One reason, he explains, is that American lambs are bred specifically for meat, while imported animals tend to be grown for both the meat and wool.

"Spring lamb" was once categorized as an animal that was born in early spring, fed on grass during the summer and slaughtered in the fall. But, explain John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger in "How to Cook Meat" (William Morrow, 2000), "today this term has meaning only as a marketing tool. Lambs may be born any time throughout the year, but will almost always be brought to market before they are a year old, most of them between five and seven months. So virtually any lamb you buy today will have the tenderness that the seasonal label used to guarantee."

There are a couple of things to consider when buying lamb. Look for moist, pinkish-red meat with waxy-white veins of fat. If the meat is a dark purple-red, it will have come from an older lamb, and it will be drier and tougher. The ends of the bones should also look moist with a reddish hue.

There are several schools of thought for roasting meat. Some briefly sear the meat in a 500 degree oven, then lower the temperature to finish cooking. But Kuzaro keeps it simple and suggests cooking roasts in a 325 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes per pound. "The most important thing is to get the internal temperature right," Kuzaro said. "You don't want to overcook lamb, which gets dried out and tough." Lamb is best cooked to medium-rare (145 degrees).

After cooking, one pound of a bone-in lamb leg or roast will yield 8 to 9 ounces of edible meat, while boneless cuts will provide about 10 ½ ounces.