# Special Names for Animal Meat **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758 "2013-11-25T16:04:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/41 "2013-11-29T03:48:15Z")
There are still more layers of complifusion over this. Live animals are commonly known by gender-specific names, _e.g._ cow and bull; ewe and ram; mare and stallion. Served on the plate, there don’t seem to be separate names for gender. “Beef” doesn’t tell us if said beef, in its former life, was cow, bull, or steer. Furthermore, animals (and some foods, as discussed already) have separate names according to the age of the animal. Look how many words we have for “horse”, just according to age and gender: Foal, colt, filly, stallion, mare, gelding. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/42 "2013-11-29T04:21:20Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Live animals are commonly known by gender-specific names, _e.g._ cow and bull; ewe and ram; mare and stallion. Served on the plate, there don’t seem to be separate names for gender. “Beef” doesn’t tell us if said beef, in its former life, was cow, bull, or steer. A capon, however, is a castrated rooster used for food. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/43 "2013-11-29T04:56:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Goat meat is sometimes called chevon (which like beef, mutton, and pork is derived from French). The reason chevon is not a common term is because goat meat isn’t all that popular in America. Aha, that explains Chevre no? > [@Kobal2](#): > > It’s suckLing. As in a pig that’s so young, it hasn’t been weaned yet. A piglet. Pig veal, if you will. These are cochinitas in Mexican Spanish if I’m not mistaken. Gonna have to make some pibil sometime soon again. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/44 "2013-11-29T04:58:01Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > A capon, however, is a castrated rooster used for food. Wait, so there could potentially be an Italian dish named Al Capon? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/45 "2013-11-29T12:52:28Z")
I am surprised that no one has mentioned lamb. Historically in England, sheep were grown for their wool, which (with derived products) accounted for some 75% of Tudor English exports. Mutton (mouton) was from a sheep that was too old to produce good wool (unless you were rich). In modern times we almost never see mutton, it is always lamb. There seems to be a variety of definitions of ‘lamb’ but one I heard was a sheep in the year following its birth year, so up to twenty-odd months then. It is pretty obvious that ‘lamb’ seems somehow more desirable than ‘mutton’ and I strongly suspect that is is butcher’s that have driven mutton off the shelf while still selling the same meat that would once have been called mutton. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/46 "2013-11-29T15:06:33Z")
Growing up, I had a friend whose family had sheep. The family ate sheep meat very often. IME, mutton and lamb are two distinctly different tastes. Now, we have a small organic/boutique sheep farm nearby. We buy lamb a few times a year ($$$) and I love it, but I’d turn down free mutton. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/47 "2013-11-29T23:17:59Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I am surprised that no one has mentioned lamb. Historically in England, sheep were grown for their wool, which (with derived products) accounted for some 75% of Tudor English exports. Mutton (mouton) was from a sheep that was too old to produce good wool (unless you were rich). > > In modern times we almost never see mutton, it is always lamb. There seems to be a variety of definitions of ‘lamb’ but one I heard was a sheep in the year following its birth year, so up to twenty-odd months then. > > It is pretty obvious that ‘lamb’ seems somehow more desirable than ‘mutton’ and I strongly suspect that is is butcher’s that have driven mutton off the shelf while still selling the same meat that would once have been called mutton. A lamb, strictly speaking, is under 12 months old, and does not yet have its permanent teeth. The meat of this animal is sold as “lamb”. A hogget is over twelve months old, but still hasn’t reached a particular stage of dental development - I forget the details; it has something to do with the number and of permanent teeth. A hogget will be under 24 months. This animal is sold at market as hogget, but its meat is sold as lamb. Anything older than a hogget is a sheep or, rarely, a mutton, and the meat is sold as mutton (except in the US, I think, where it’s sold as lamb). ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/48 "2013-11-29T23:35:15Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > No, and you’ve never heard of chicken referred to as chicken meat either. Or tuna referred to as tuna meat. You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/49 "2013-11-30T00:11:27Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > These are cochinitas in Mexican Spanish if I’m not mistaken. Most Spanish speaking countries call suckling pig [_lechon._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechon) ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/50 "2013-11-30T10:43:20Z")
In written English, I’ve rarely seen “beeves” in the mouth of an American (a cowboy, for that matter), but “veals” only in the mouth of _Viz_ character “Student Grant”, and the whole point was that Grant was woefully ignorant about the animals whose rights he was demonstrating for. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758/51 "2013-12-01T06:51:38Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Most Spanish speaking countries call suckling pig [_lechon._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechon) Seems I was thinking of a [Yucatan derivative.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochinita_pibil) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/special-names-for-animal-meat/674758.md?page=2)