Good Spices for Lamb: Cumin, Rosemary, Garlic and the Blends Built Around Them

Lamb has a distinctive flavor, and it takes bold spices: cumin, rosemary, garlic, oregano, mint and warm spice blends. Each has a home in a named dish. Xinjiang’s cumin lamb uses 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds, a Roman roast leg is stuffed with garlic and rosemary, and one version of the Kashmiri stew rogan josh skips garlic and onion entirely.

At a glance

The core lamb spices

Cumin

The Woks of Life’s cumin lamb is a Xinjiang dish, related to the region’s lamb skewers (yang rou chuan), and the recipe calls cumin and lamb “a flavor match made in heaven.” It uses 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds.¹ Cumin tastes warm and a bit like caraway.

Ground or whole both work. The Xinjiang recipe uses seeds, while Jennifer Segal’s gyro meat uses 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin.³ There’s a widely repeated claim that cumin seeds form a crust and infuse into the melting fat, but we couldn’t find a source for it. See cumin uses and cumin seeds vs. ground cumin.

Rosemary and garlic

Saveur’s Roman lamb leg is stuffed with plenty of sliced garlic and fresh rosemary.² Rosemary tastes pungent and slightly bitter. You can rub chopped rosemary over a roast or drop whole sprigs into a braise. We found no source calling either one the traditional way. How much garlic is “enough” is up to you. See cooking with rosemary, rosemary uses and too much rosemary.

Black pepper

Segal’s gyro meat uses 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.³ See cracked vs. ground black pepper.

Oregano: Greek and Middle Eastern

Oregano is a key ingredient in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking and essential in Greek salads and gyros. Segal’s gyro meat, made with ground lamb and beef, uses 2 teaspoons dried oregano.³ America’s Test Kitchen suggests its Greek seasoned salt blend as a rub for raw lamb.⁹ See gyro spices, Greek seasoning and cooking with oregano.

Mint

North Dakota State University Extension notes that mint often goes with pork or lamb, and suggests serving its mint jelly with roasted lamb.⁴ See mint uses.

Marjoram and smoked paprika

Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages describe marjoram as a common flavoring for grilled mutton.⁸ Spain’s Pimentón de la Vera specification names lamb among the meats it seasons.¹⁰ See marjoram uses and smoked paprika.

Spice blends for lamb

Baharat

Katzer notes that baharat goes mainly into mutton dishes, and describes the Gulf form as a mix of pungent and aromatic spices. In the eastern Mediterranean, a simpler mix is mostly black pepper and allspice.⁵ Ottolenghi’s version lists pepper, cumin, coriander, clove, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, paprika and chile, and the shop calls baharat the Middle East’s answer to India’s garam masala.¹¹ See baharat seasoning and baharat substitutes.

Rogan josh spices

Rogan josh is a lamb stew whose techniques and ingredients vary, Tara Deshpande writes. She describes a Pandit and a Muslim version, both made with dried Kashmiri chiles. The Pandit version uses dried ginger and yogurt and no garlic or onion.⁷ Penzeys sells a blend it says follows a Rajasthani version (paprika, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, pepper, cayenne, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and saffron) and suggests browning 2 pounds of lamb or beef cubes for it.⁶ See rogan josh seasoning.

Curry powder

The USDA purchasing specification for curry powder lists turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger and cardamom.¹² It works on lamb like it does on any meat, but none of the sources we opened names lamb as a traditional curry powder dish. See curry powder, cooking with curry powder and too much curry powder.

Lamb dishes and their spices, side by side

Safe internal temperatures for lamb

USDA FSIS sets these minimums:¹³

Ground lamb, as in gyro meat, needs the higher temperature.

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• Dried herbs vs. fresh
• The master list of herbs and spices