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

Lamb has a distinctive flavor, and the spices most often paired with it are bold ones: cumin, rosemary, garlic, oregano, mint and warm spice blends. Each has a home in a named dish, from Xinjiang’s cumin lamb to Roman roast leg with garlic and rosemary to the Kashmiri stew rogan josh. This page covers what each spice brings, the dishes that use it, and the safe cooking temperatures. Quantities appear only where a named recipe gives them.

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 for its lamb.¹ Britannica describes cumin’s taste as warm and reminiscent of caraway.⁹

Ground or whole both work: the Xinjiang recipe uses seeds,¹ while Jennifer Segal’s gyro meat uses 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin.³ A widely repeated claim that cumin seeds form a crust and infuse into the melting fat has no source we could find. 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 Britannica describes rosemary’s taste as pungent and slightly bitter.¹⁰ Chopped rosemary as a rub for roasts and whole sprigs in braises are both common practice; we found no source ranking one as traditional. How much garlic is “enough” is a matter of taste. See cooking with rosemary, rosemary uses and too much rosemary.

Black pepper

Black pepper’s flavor comes principally from piperine.¹¹ Segal’s gyro meat uses 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.³ See cracked vs. ground black pepper.

Oregano: Greek and Middle Eastern

Britannica calls oregano a key ingredient in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines and essential in Greek salads and gyros.¹² Merriam-Webster defines a gyro as a sandwich especially of lamb and beef with tomato, onion and yogurt sauce on pita.¹³ 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.¹⁴ See gyro spices, Greek seasoning and cooking with oregano.

Mint

North Dakota State University Extension notes that mint is a frequent accompaniment to 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.¹⁵ See marjoram uses and smoked paprika.

Spice blends for lamb

Baharat

Katzer notes that baharat is mainly used for mutton dishes, and describes the Gulf form as combining 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 equivalent of India’s garam masala.¹⁶ See baharat seasoning and baharat substitutes.

Rogan josh spices

Rogan josh is a lamb stew whose name is Persian, though its techniques and ingredients vary, Tara Deshpande writes.⁷ 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

Curry powder is a British adaptation. Britannica explains that it was adapted by British settlers in India so British cooks could re-create Indian flavors, while in India spice mixtures are called masala and are prepared at home.¹⁷ The USDA purchasing specification lists turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger and cardamom.¹⁸ It works on lamb, as 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:¹⁹

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

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