WHat would you think if you went to a party and they had a lamb roast not a hog roast???

[MadameCastafiore]

Because I don't eat pork and am thinking of getting someone in to do a lamb roast for DH's birthday party. We always have a BBQ but he ends up doing the cooking and I end up schlepping in and out from the kitchen so thought I could just do loads of diffent kinds of salads and cous cous to go with it???

Or any other ideas would be appreciated - there will be about 40 - 50 people.

I think the sight of any poor dead creature slowly burning on a spit would make me want to leave, tbh...sorry. I hate these spectacles of carnivorism. And I'm not veggie, I just find it distasteful to use the animal as entertainment while you cook it.

They do this in France a lot, have been to several parties where there was a whole lamb roasted on a spit. I think it's due to the north African influence there. They call it a mechoui, presumably from Arabic. (if you google mechoui there are lots of hits).
I don't like lamb (or pork for that matter) so it wasn't my cup of tea but all the other party guests seemed to love it, so I'd say definitely go ahead and do it if that's what you fancy!

Hmmm. I don't know. Where's the animal's dignity? It reminds me of the gopher on the stick in O Brother.

'He ain't eaten nothin but prison food, gopher and greasy horse for thirteen years'

Dead animals don't have any dignity, not when they are for dinner.

No you're right. It just seems so, well, barbaric? Like, it wouldnt matter if you had to do it in the wild etc but to do it deliberately for entertainment value seems a bit crass somehow? Sorry you are all probably very nice people. i am off on one tonight. I have little perspective.

We aren't doing it for entertainment but because it will taste yummy - we are'nt going to stand around staring at it as far as I am aware!!

Doesn't it add 'atmosphere' though? I thought that was the point.

I suppose at heart I'm still the veggie I was for 15 odd years. I rarely eat meat and when I do I try to buy outdoor reared, happy life animals sort of thing. I feel very guilty otherwise.

I suppose not being a veggie now, because there is a limit to the power I have to change things that happen in the world, I still try to minimise the meat thing rather than glamourising it...if that makes sense. I see it as inevitable to an extent but not desirable or tasteful.

I'm sorry, but I would think, oh, a baby sheep on a stick getting crispy innards. And then I would avoid.
Are lambs big enough for that many people? Lamb is a baby animal - surely you'd need more than one? Triplets maybe?
Think all I would be thinking about is the fact it's a wee baby lamb, and how much I love baby lambs and actually how horrible that this baby thing has been taken away from it's mother so it can be cooked slowly for 40-50 people to eat.

Sorry, I really don't like the thought of eating lambs. I suppose on a spit just seems, well, I dunno, horrid. Somehow it seems less bad to roast a pig.
Obviously a personal thing. Obviously I am just mental.

Sounds like a good party though!
Maybe hide the lamb behind a screen?
Poor lamb. It's all frolicky in a field at the moment and has no idea.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!! Can i come please?

of course anon - you want to come and watch the baby lamb go round and round.

Am doing it a favour- at lkeats it isn;t hacked to bits until it is cooked.

Will be an organic lamb of course - once it's dead though does it matter what happens to it?

Well this is it. A pig is generally older, more annoying and has little purpose in life. A lamb is just a baby. People probably roast piglets as well which is horrible, too, but at least give the poor thing a few months' grace before skinning it and sticking a pole through it.

I would very much enjoy a roast lamb.

And think spit roasting is an efficent method of cooking lots of food for loads of people, and keeping it moist because of the turning.

i'd think brilliant as I love lamb, we're thinking of doing something like this for DS3 birthday party at the end of the summer.

Yum! Is what I would think! I'd go with middle east/Greek style accompaniments I think. Elisabeth Luard's book Saffron and Sunshine has fab dishes from that part of the world

Lamb for eating is usually a whole year old! Quite a big animal - not a skippy, spindly ickle baa lamb! Spring lamb was born the year before.
And in general lamb enjoys a happier life than pigs - unless you specify a pig for a happy outdoor farm.

I would think YUM where';s the mint sauce, and then you would see me disapear into it.

Though a hog is obviously much much bigger.

I bloody love spectacles of carnivorism. Especially when followed by baclava. Can I come? I'll help throw bones into a binliner at the end wash up and everything!

Thanks Blu - fel less like an evil baby lamb killer now! (Actualy had no qualms about it in the first place).

Will have a look for that seabright - thank you.

Ha ha Grumpia - course you can come too if you live in my part of the country.

Carrots have feelings too you know you just can;t hear them scream!

the lambs we eat are not the cute frollicking things we see in the fields with their mummies - they are fully weaned, fat surly teenagers! It wouldn't be economically viable to sell baby lamb - too skinny for a start.

Excellent!

I'd think "Yummy!"

I do find it odd when people think that to have the whole animal on display, rather than just its dismembered bits, or think seeing it cooking, is distasteful or disrespectful. Disliking seeing it whole is just squeamishness, which is fair enough, seeing as we are mostly so distanced from the origins of our foods. But disrespectful? FGS it's dead and is going to be eaten. If it was going to be used for target practice, or left out as a display piece, that would be disrespectful, because it would be wasted.

Have a lovely party, OP!

Fecking teenage lamb - probably has an attitude and thinks it knows it all - deserves being slaughtered and having a stick poked up its arse!

Ingrid what is the difference between spit roasting an animal and roasting it cut up. It is not entertainment it is a way of cooking.

Blu my lambs will be heading for the freezer at 6 months which is when they generally start to be sent to abbatoirs.

Interesting fact that lambs are younger than veal calves when they are sent for meat.

Colditz great post.

Ha ha ha, I had no idea they were teenage!
I genuinely thought it was the wee frolicky ones that were killed.
I did wonder!

[feels a bit better about the whole lamb eating thing now]

Although, still not sure about the spit idea.
Just a personal thing though.

See, you learn something everyday!