So, do you think it's a tragedy that mutton's off the menu?

[Caligula]

mutton

Personally, I have managed not to be traumatised by the absence of mutton in my recipe repetoire.

[janinlondon]

Gordon Ramsay was bewailing this recently too. Perhaps we should ask MrsGR?

[Blu]

DP and I were reminiscing about the 'economicl' recipes of our childhood, and I do wish cheap lamb / mutton cuts were more readily available...mutton stew, 'scraggy lamb' (as we used to call it, ) etc.

Very tasty, cheap, good for warming winter food.

[WideWebWitch]

I sometimes resemble mutton I think.

[MrsGordonRamsay]

Did someone call ???

[Blu]

But how are you DRESSED, www?

[aelita]

Mutton tasted a million times nicer than lamb and at least the poor sheep get a bit more of a life. I think lamb is despatched at about 12 weeks and muton comes from sheep about a year or more...

[trice]

My favorite winter childhood dish was mutton skirt cooked long and slow with cabbage and black pepper corns.Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[colditz]

I have never tasted mutton, however, I LOVE lamb, and have always been a fan of cheaper cuts of meat. If mutton was on the market and reasonably priced (say, same price as stewing steak for equivilant cut of mutton) I would definately buy it.

[kittyfish]

Mutton is far nicer than hoggit and hoggit is nicer than lamb. I raise two or three of my own a year for the freezer and they are slaughtered as hoggit which would be between 6m to 18m I think. Grass fed and very tame they have a good and easy tho' illegal death (no abattoir involved). Two lambs (cost = £5 ea, £20 for formula then just grass) keeps me going for a year. Unfortunately economics mean that it is barely worth raising lamb in this country so mutton has no chance.

[jellyjelly]

What is hoggit?

[expatinscotland]

Gag! Mutton's rank. Best served to dogs.

[Enid]

I am fucking so traumatised I can hardly speak

[expatinscotland]

So she writes instead .

[MarsOnLife]

but if you lot start eating it again I'll have to go further to get my "goat" for my curries.

[kittyfish]

Hoggit is a sheep of a certain age...

[nooka]

You can buy mutton from ethnic butchers. I've seen it alongside kid in Peckham.

[Caligula]

Ooh yes but it's all halal. Thinking about it, that's the only place I see mutton nowadays - in halal butchers. But it's not nice, it has a different texture.

[MarsOnLife]

you're not cooking it right caligula. curry it! lovely!

[Caligula]

Yes maybe. With some fruit and almonds perhaps... for about 4 or 5 hours... I suspect that that's the only thing that would make it edible.

Actually, that sounds quite nice.

[moondog]

Mutton is good stuff.
Have had it lots of timesin Turkey.
Delicious.
Nooka,apparently kid is all the rage with the in crowd in NYC.

[Heathcliffscathy]

easy to mock, but actually what this is about is a resurgence of interest in a way of farming that is less intensive, less about using any means available to create leaner longer lasting meat, and for that reason it is important and i hope that mutton does have a resurgence. bet it's tastier than lamb (altho has to be said that lamb/sheep are about as free range as intensive farming gets).

i also hope that older chickens for stewing make a come back.

seriously.

[Levanna]

Isn't it more about economical farming? Say a ewe produces lambs then is slaughtered shortly after they're weaned, for mutton, it has to be more profitable than slaughtering aged ewes for next to nothing as dog meat, in the future?
That's assuming a ewe that's been in lamb is still viable for mutton? Otherwise, what's the point?

Only worry is that the amount of poor scrawny ponies that are bid on in groups at market, for dog food, will undoubtedly rise to meet the shortfall.

[bobbybobbobbingalong]

I served mutton kebabs at a bbq and they were great. We always have hogget rather than lamb.

All our bloomin meat is sent to the UK, so hogget it is.

What do all the welsh farmers do with their old sheep?