My impression is that lamb and mutton are not as popular in American cuisine as they are in the cuisine of many other countries. Why is this?
According to a friend of mine, it is because lamb is too flavorful and Americans like bland food. But I’m sure it can’t be that simple.
Also, according to a previous thread I was able to find, it is because “the market is dominated by beef, pork, and chicken” because “US sheep producers have a weak lobby”. Is this really the case? And if so, why?
Well from my little point of view my father refused to eat lamb because all he ever had in his life was mutton (BLEH). My SO, who comes from a farmer family, introduced me to lamb for the first time when I was in my 20’s. Our family routinely eats lamb, yummmmm.
I’ve never tried mutton, but I’ve been told it has a strong flavor and isn’t very tasty. Lamb remains a holidayish dish in my family for no other reason than that no one’s ever really tried to expand it’s role. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad for either lamb or mutton.
Bwuh? Lamb, at the very least, has grown significantly in popularity over the past few years thanks to some heavy lobbying by New Zealand lamb producers. It’s traditional to eat lamb with Easter dinner, and in our house we tend to eat some form of lamb maybe 2-3 times a month… which is about as often as we have beef, actually.
Mutton isn’t nearly as commonplace, and I’d probably have a hard time finding a butcher that even sells it around here. Most people associate mutton with stereotypical British cooking, which has a rather bad reputation for being bland, overcooked and uninteresting, so it’s gotten a bit of a bad reputation. If it wasn’t so bloody hard to find, I’d probably substitute it for lamb in some of the spicier slow-cooked braises and stews I’ve tried, like the berbere-braised lamb shank I made a couple of weeks ago.
Admittedly, I am in Canada, so our food traditions are occasionally different from our neighbours to the south, especially the ones in the southernmost states. Plus I live in one of the most culturally diverse cities in North America, and in a neighbourhood that is heavily populated by Greek, Balkan and Ethiopian immigrants (cultures which are all very fond of lamb)… so I may be more exposed than most.
Lamb is expensive. We eat it when it is affordable, but the small cuts vs high prices keep it fro being on our table too often. Which is a shame, because we love it.
I can’t eat lamb OR veal…because they’re babies. (Then there’s the movie, “Silence of the Lambs,” which made an impression.) I think Americans are more likely to anthropomorphize animals, especially baby animals, and hence have trouble with the idea of eating them. (For me, the death - by whatever means - of a human child is harder to take than the death of an human adult,)
I don’t know why. My lamb stew is the most popular dish I make, however.
I once went to a restaurant that was serving dishes with lamb, venison, rabbit, and duckling. Someone I was with said, “I can’t eat here! They’re serving Bambi and his friends!”
Beef, chicken, and pork are produced on what is virtually an industrial basis with the result that these meats are cheap. Other meats like lamb, buffalo, goat, rabbit, ostrich, etc are produced on a more costly basis and cannot compete economically.
I didn’t eat it much before moving into a Middle Eastern neighborhood. Now I can eat it every day if I like.
A Lebanese restaurant owner that I trust told me that I is because American lamb producers mistakenly try to raise lean lamb. The problem with that is that their uric acid gathers in their fat. He said New Zealand lambs have more fat on their backs, the uric acid gather there leaving the rest of the meat sweeter. He wouldn’t serve US grown lamb, and if his wonderful lamb chops and kabobs were any indication, he was right to do so. The dreadful, mouth-puckering US lamb served at the otherwise wonderful Gate’s BBQ in KC is only further confirmation.
Probably the #1 source of lamb in the US diet is mixed with ground beef in gyros.
Trader Joe’s carries rack of lamb, lamb chops, and lamb steaks. The last three times I was there they did not have leg of lamb, but that’s were I get mine.
Cost Cutter (a local supermarket) and Fred Meyer have pre-packaged ground lamb. I chop parsley and garlic and mix it with the lamb with an egg, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Good cooked over charcoal, or fried on the stove. Served with couscous.
The sausage maker at Pike Place Market has different lamb sausages.
The butcher at Pike Place Market carries various cuts of lamb.
So I have no problem finding lamb, and eat it fairly frequently.
Thanks for all the responses so far!
But if it’s simply a matter of taste, then why is it so common in other countries where beef, pork and chicken are all readily available?
But what is it about America that makes it expensive? I remember when I was in China, dishes with lamb were the same price as dishes with pork, beef or chicken.
That may help explain about lamb, but why is mutton equally rare here?
But why isn’t lamb also produced on an industrial basis? I don’t think it’s an inherently more costly animal.
This seems like the most plausible explanation so far because it specifically addresses lamb in America. But wouldn’t you think that American lamb producers would get the picture by now that the way they raise lamb needs to be changed?
This was 10 years ago, when we first moved into the neighborhood. They probably have changed. An American chef friend insists that US lamb is as good as any produced anywhere in the world. But it would be an expensive change, buying new breeding stock, etc. I’d bet the gyros meat is American, while most of the chops and legs are New Zealand.
But the pressure to make “lean meat” for American consumers is pretty intense. American pork has pretty much been ruined by the campaign to make it as lean - and just about as flavorful - as chicken.
There is also the problem that during the World Wars The American G.I.s were served horrible nasty old crappy Lamb and mutton as mess, apparently.
Thousands of those guys came back home and just flat out forbid lamb or mutton from ever appearing on their tables, and much of the whole next generation just never really considered it to be a part of a diet.
My sister works for a fancy schmancy (Firefox says “schamncy” is not a word, btw; bullshit!) lamb producer. They aren’t, ahem, certified organic, but they sell their lamb to specialty food stores and Whole Foods all over Northern California.
Anyway, this post is rather pointless as both my sister and I are vegetarians and have never actually eaten this lamb, but apparently the company is doing pretty well. People want lamb. (Especially my mom’s dog, to whom my sister brings scraps.)
I’ve never even seen mutton in any American supermarket, nor on any restaurant menu – lamb only.
Because they’re used to whatever taste mutton has in the same way that I’m used to the taste of hot dogs or whatever? I dunno. It’s just not something that’s really been on my radar and I’m not that huge a fan of meat that I spend a lot of time hunting down new and exotic meats to eat.
I actually do think this a lot of the reason. If you look, most of the popular meats here tend to be very light in flavor: for example, the popularity of white meat over dark meat in chicken (which tends to be pretty flavorless in America as it is.) Lamb and mutton tend to be much stronger flavors, and if you’re not familiar with them growing up, they can be a little “weird.” That said, there are parts of the US where mutton is eaten commonly: specifically, Owensboro, Kentucky, and its environs, where mutton is the meat of choice for barbecue. However, even in Owensboro, a lot of people I met don’t like mutton because it’s too strong a flavor. For the record, I love mutton, but outside Owensboro, it’s been really difficult to find in the US.
Regarding mutton, that’s pretty much what the story I heard. Except it wasn’t just servicemen who were served it but civilians as well. Beef and pork were rationed during WWII but mutton was fairly plentiful so if you wanted to eat meat, it was all that was available most of the time. Thus, people on both fronts quickly grew sick of mutton and when the war and meat rationed ended, it was immediately dropped in favor of beef, pork, and chicken and forgotten as an entrée.
I don’t know if that also applies to lamb but I think most people refuse to eat it because they think lambs are too young and cute to devour.
I’m going to go with the “Lamb industry in the US isn’t as powerful as beef, pork, and chicken” explanation. Beef and chicken especially are served in the thousands of pounds at fast food restaurants every day, and are readily available at any grocery store. I think the only reason pork is even in the same category is because of bacon and pork chops.
I don’t think there’s a specific reason lamb isn’t more popular, other than a lot of people in the US aren’t that familar with it, because there’s not a huge lamb industry in the US like there is with the other 3. Other than gyros, I’ve only eaten lamb once. There was some kind of ethnic food festival at a community college, and the Turkish team made these big thick pieces of lamb. Looked very much like a beef steak, about 1 and 1/2 inch thick, and delicious. It was very flavorful, with a similar piece of beef I’d be reaching for the A-1, but this lamb was great with nothing added.