Mutton’s been on my bucket list as a food to try before I shuffle off this mortal coil for a while now. But it was only last week when I finally found a place serving it.
I’d heard many tales of how great/meh/horrible it was for decades. Stringy, tastes like wool, gamey, chewy, and worse epithets were commonly encountered. My usual local sources of exotic meat (providers of rattlesnake, kangaroo, emu, turtle, moose, etc.) had failed me though. “Nobody wants mutton” was a common refrain in answer to my request. Instead I’d be urged to try their lamb (of which meat I’d enjoyed plenty in the past).
So when the Mrs. and I joined our eldest child and her hubby in Ottawa, Ontario for a meal at a Sri Lankan restaurant and saw mutton on the menu, we both jumped at the chance.
In addition to sharing a vegetarian thali with the young folks, I ordered a plate of string hoppers with mutton curry, while the Mrs. ordered a mutton biryani. The mutton arrived in both dishes having been sliced quite thin (1/8 inch or less), then cut into small pieces, each about a half inch long/wide.
It had definitely been well seasoned, with lots of tempting south asian spice aromas wafting off the dishes. And we both found the mutton to be quite tasty, flavored both with the spices and a meaty flavor that we both agreed was like “bold lamb”. It had a bit more chew than most lamb or beef we’d encountered, but it certainly was not tough or off-putting.
All in all, a delicious meal complemented by the other Sri Lankan dishes.
In high school a friend’s family had a hobby farm with Morgan horses and sheep. They ate a ton of mutton. I often had a mutton burger when I visited. I like mutton, but prefer lamb. To me mutton has a greasy taste compared to lamb.
Never had mutton, but I’ve always assumed it was similar in taste to goat, which I have had. Is it?
My only other data point is a “Sanford and Son” episode with guest actress Mary Wickes, where she asks Fred “Do you like mutton?” Fred responds, “Does anybody?”
I’ve dined on goat fairly often, and even had a goat curry two nights before our mutton feast. I don’t really find them super similar, but I’d allow they’re not that far apart, much closer to each other than they are to beef. I’d class them with the venison I’d had in the past, and also the boar. All with at least a touch of what I’d call ‘gamey’ flavor. Not bad, but there.
I don’t care for the taste of lamb, but I’ve had it in a highly-spiced dish and it was fine. I assume, as far as taste goes, it would be similar with mutton. As for tenderness and mouth feel, spices might not help. Anyway, I have no plans to try it any time soon. I’ll wait until I’m stranded on a desert island with only a flock of sheep for company.
I think the secret for making “gamey” meat taste good is the proper kinds and amounts of herbs, spices, and vegetable add-ins. I once tried venison cooked like a regular steak and did not like it. But I’ve also eaten venison stew cooked properly, and I enjoyed it. It sounds like the place you ate at really knew what it was doing.
MIRACLE MAX: Sonny, true love is the greatest thing in the world - except for a nice MLT - mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. They’re so perky, I love that.
I’ve had it a few times in Owensboro where it is the barbecue meat of choice, served with a Worcestershire heavy sauce/“dip.” It was perfectly fine. It didn’t blow my mind or anything, though. Just a nice change of pace (and we went to all four of the barbecue joints there the first time we visited. Now there are only three.)
I don’t necessarily trust that what is listed as “mutton” on the menu of an ethnic restaurant is translated correctly. There seems to be some confusion with lamb, mutton, and goat.
ETA: For example, in South Asian cuisine, mutton often refers to goat. It looks like what I looked up on a Sri Lankan mutton curry also says it is goat.
Yeah, I was aware of this, and asked the staff if it was sheep or goat. I was told it was sheep. How confident in that statement I should be, I’m not quite sure.
My experiences were from my teen years and pretty well put me off mutton. My father, who was fond of then reasonably priced imported New Zealand leg of lamb, was able to buy fresh mutton from somewhere and gave it at least two tries. He cooked it more or less identically to the roast lamb he semi-regularly made (which I liked).
It came out greasy as hell and very gamey. Now generally-speaking I actually like fatty meat. But not only was this stuff dripping, but I understand most of that strong flavor comes from the fat. It was kinda rank. Not inedible, but also not good.
I could totally see it working much better in a strongly spiced dish like a curry. But I’ve never felt a strong urge to seek it out and revisit it. If it popped up in front of me on a menu (and it literally never has and I eat a fair bit of Indian) I’d still probably go lamb first, then goat and finally mutton. Having tried it before I don’t see much point in taking a flyer on it maybe being good, when I’m more sure something else will appeal more.
I bet a lot varies based on how mature the mutton is, as there can be younger and older mutton. The stuff I had in Owensboro wasn’t all that strongly flavored. It maybe was slightly more “sheepy” than lamb, but I also feel like lamb has become less lamb-y than my childhood memories of it. Granted, it was smoked, but otherwise it wasn’t strongly seasoned. I made my own barbecue lamb shoulder a few weeks after my first Owensboro trip and it pretty much tasted the same as the Owensboro mutton. I had to research a bit because I didn’t believe it was mutton, but all the sources I could find say it is, indeed, mutton.
OK, Owensboro Times and Owensboro’s tourism website define mutton as over one year old, not two, so perhaps they do use younger mutton.
I had some lamb during my Michelin tour of Denver and it was … lamb. But I had one lamb dish where the meat was delicately flavored and could be cut with a butter knife. I don’t know if it was the type of lamb or the preparation but it was one of a kind.
I’m guessing a slow cooked cut that has a lot of connective tissue. Something like shoulder. It’s not difficult to make a cut of meat buttery soft and succulent — you just have to use the right cut and cook it low and slow.
Now that you mention it, I wonder if it was sous-vided then seared. If so, I might have to get me a sous-vide machine because I ain’t never tasted anything like that lamb before.