Much ado about Mutton by Bob Kennard... Lamb, Hogget or Mutton? What's the difference?
Posted by Lydia Unwin on
We think of eating lamb at Easter in the same way as we think of turkey at Christmas. But this culinary custom is at odds with seasonal eating – most British lambs are not ready to be eaten in spring.
The best time to eat grass-fed British lamb is from autumn onwards when the lambs have had time to feed on the summer grass and mature, the meat can also be hung to add flavour.
If you eat lamb at Easter it will have to be born in winter, they are therefore using nutrients to keep warm, instead of going to muscle growth and laying down fat. It’s the fat that adds the flavour. So the meat can be tender but a bit tasteless.
From wool to food:
From the twelfth to the eighteenth century, the primary reason for keeping sheep was to produce wool.
As the wool trade declined and towns began to grow in the sixteenth century, so the demands for meat increased, forcing shepherds to consider their flock for meat production. The switch from wool to meat production was quite a task for sheep farmers. Breeding sheep for meat requires different characteristics from those which will produce luscious wool. Genetic section over hundreds of years has given us a huge pool of sheep traits and breeds that are designed for specific climate, jobs or attributes.
Back to the question in hand:
What is ‘Lamb’
There are various definitions of lamb, but the most widely accepted is a sheep up to 1 year old.
What is ‘Hogget’
Most of the sheep we produce fall just into the category of Hogget. Hogget is widely accepted as a sheep that is older than 1 year and under 2 years.
What is ‘Mutton’
For many hundreds of years, mutton was the main form of sheep meat eaten in the United Kingdom. Yet over the past 40 years it has virtually disappeared from our kitchens - and we were in real danger of losing one of our iconic foods.
Mutton can be anything from 2 years old. However, there is no legal definition of what mutton is. You will often find goat meat referred to as Mutton.
Much ado about mutton by Bob Kennard is fact packed with information about mutton, sheep and more!
If these facts have sparked your interest then you can read more in this brilliant book that reveals a wealth of knowledge about sheep and mutton.
Much ado about Mutton (£20) https://merlinunwin.co.uk/products/much-ado-about-mutton
