If you’re up for another try, I’d suggest visiting a Persian or Lebanese restaurant and trying their lamb cooked over charcoal on a skewer. Before moving to a Middle Eastern neighborhood, I rarely ate lamb - now it’s my favorite meat, especially lamb from New Zealand. A Palestinian restaurant owner explained that American sheep ranchers tried to raise lean sheep, and that it was a huge mistake. He said the fat on a sheep’s back was where uric acid gathered, that if the sheep didn’t have enough fat, the uric acid would accumulate in the meat, giving it an unpleasant flavor - which was why he only bought New Zealand or Australian lamb. I don’t know if this is accurate, but if his amazing lamb chops were proof, I’m going to go with it.
By the way, most gyros (I believe) are made from a mixture of beef and lamb.
I have seen that before but in talking to a sheep producer I know and from my own observations trialing dogs on commercial flocks, I don’t really see that our lamb here is especially lean here- unless the NZ/AU lambs are just hog-fat. Most of the time I’ve heard people complain about lamb or mutton is the greasy/fat film on the top of their mouths and that I’ve heard of NZ/AU lamb as well as US. I raise hair sheep, which are generally known to not only be sweet and mild tasting, but are so lean that you can slaughter them at much later ages without getting the mutton flavoring you wouild get with a wool breed. Not saying it’s not possibly right, just doesn’t really compute common sense wise.
Wikipedia says the Mutton Renaissance Campaign started in 2004 so I think it predates Ramsay.
I grew up on mutton, and still like it. A lot of people swear by hogget (between 1 and 2 years old) as the best balance between taste and tenderness. I’ve never heard of the farmer’s marketing story Cat Jones mentions.
OK. As I said, this wasn’t from anyone who raised sheep, but from a restaurant owner who cooked some of the best lamb chops I’ve ever had. Another cook friend prefers US lamb because he can get it in without it being frozen. All I know is the mutton available at the otherwise reliable Gates BBQ in Kansas City is horrible and epitomizes every nasty thing people who don’t like sheep meat don’t like about it - strong flavor with a distinctly “pissy” overtone. If that had been my only exposure to it, I’d think I hated lamb too.
I’ve always wanted to try mutton in chili. (But I can never seem to find any mutton in the supermarket, only lamb.) Has anybody ever tried that? How did it turn out?
Mutton is used in many traditional Scottish delicacies - the ubiquitous Scotch Pie, for example. It’s good stuff; I prefer it to lamb.
Incidentally, Scotch Pies can be greasy and utterly foul if done badly, so please don’t be put off if you encounter a nasty one.
Also, I get the impression that Donner Kebab meat is more mutton than lamb, but no doubt that varies. Also very tasty in my opinion, though very bad for the health.
At what age or weight are sheep the most efficient use of feed? Too small, and you get almost nothing, too old/large, and you’re feeding something that’s just “wasting” food by walking around alive.
I would suspect that it is far more to do with feeding practices - Aussie/NZ lamb is completely grass fed, and I suspect that US lamb has supplemental grain feeding.
Like GuanoLad, I grew up in NZ and mutton (and hogget) was a staple for cheap eating. As a student I would get half a mutton side, and we would end up cooking everything - slow roasts, chops, stews, soups. Loved it. Here in the UK we eat NZ lamb (it is still cheaper than welsh lamb and I prefer the taste), but if I could get mutton (and not overpriced Renaissance Mutton) I would use that. I am thinking of a food budgetary squeeze anyhow, so cheap meat is back on the menu.
Mutton can also be turned into Macon as I discovered when a local fast food place switched to Macon for their burgers so more of their products could be Halaal.
Kentucky burgoo has traditionally been prepared from whatever meat is available at the time, so there’s no reason not to use mutton if that’s what’s wandering by when you’re hungry.
Here’s a link with a great photo of Kentucky chefs preparing the state dish.
Superb name for the first album by Prince Charles and the Mutton Renaissance Campaign.
