i was listing to the radio the other day discussing the consumption of lamb or lack there of in the us.
the statistics indicate there is aprox 1 pound per person per year consumed in the us.
whats wrong with lamb?
there is a fair amount of greek migrants that must eat all the lamb in the country. so dose anyone over there eat any lamb?
seems unusual as we (aussies) eat lots of lamb and there is practly noone thats eats it over there?
is it a cutural thing? is it the taste? is maccas burgers all you eat? (sorry had to add that)
let me know do you eat lamb? how often?
thanks in advance
greg

Just never acquired a taste for it.
My wife is of Italian descent and she like the stuff, so we will eat every month or so.
Usually smells goaty to me when cooking.
Jim

Back when I was a butcher I used to grill lamb chops.

I do like Gyro's.

My family never eats it. My wife and I are from the Midwest originally from families of German heritage. Pork is our main meat. Nothing against lamb it's just almost unheard of where we're from. When I was growing up I don't think it was even available at the grocery store. I never knew anyone who ate it.

Andy

If the average is one pound per person, then I'm eating for a whole bunch of folks. My family, friends and I love lamb. I serve it in hunting camp. Try rack of lamb. Brown the fat side in a frying pan, flip it over and coat it with a paste made with chopped garlic, Rosemary and olive oil. Pop it into a 350 oven for about 20 minutes or until 130-135 on meat thermometer. Everybody'l think you're Emeril.

Also, braised lamb shanks are great. The recipe is a little long for here. Most cook books will tell you how. Now for the real secret. Never, never grind up those venison shanks. Cook'em just like lamb shanks. Ought'a be a federal offense to grind 'em.

We like it grilled. It is hard to find in most of the stores. just not sure why it hasn't caught on.

I am quite fond of lamb, and the best lamb I have ever had was in Buenos Aires. In the US, Arizona perhaps, good lamb is hard to find. Very small chops and racks. Even good size shanks are hard to come by.

Back on the ranch we used to shoot sheepherders and leave the sheep and lambs for the predators. Seriously, never acquired a taste for that or goat.

brice you are what i thaught was going on. i figured the mass of the population is missing out.
we eat lamb at about the same rate as pork in oz. and i eat it at least weekly. its great!
there is a push to get it better recognised in the us from the aussie and kiwi farmers. try to get more people eating it.
it is quite popular in europe and through out asia.
greg

In Texas eating a sheep is considered a worse offence than having sex with your sister!

The only lamb I've liked was the Dorper sheep breed grown at Blaauwkrantz Farm. Why? It doesn't have the "whang" I was used to from Ethiopian fattail sheep (lamb / "begg"). Not enough ketchup in the world, or berbere (red pepper spice blend)in the we't to hide it. Anything I've been exposed to in the US has had the same off-putting taste.

BTW, bacon / pork cured in the Southeastern US has a cure (flavor?) to it that stinks to my sense of smell. Maybe it how the meat is handled? Anyhow, the only sheep I'll eat on purpose here would be bighorn/Dall/Stone.

Sorry about that!

BNagel

yea the problem with sheep is as it is older it can get quite gamie tasting, we only eat lamb that is under 12 months old, after that it is strong and smelly, like an old boar is for pork. the ethiopian sheep sounds like what we call mutton, only good for feeding the dogs.
greg

There's quite a few Basque around here that eat lamb. It's impossible to find in the grocery store, other than the occasional leg of lamb.

Rarely, you can order rack of lamb in a high-end restaurant. NONE of the "family" restaurants carry any.

THAT is the real problem: availability, and consequently, quality. Stuff that sits and doesn't move is impossible to do a good Q.A. on.

Anyone wanting to promote lamb would do best to get into some cooking schools, and teach up and coming chefs how to use it well, and how to procure quality product. It's sort of like seafood; people will eat it in the restaurants, but they don't want to have their house smell like that. JMO, Dutch.

I don't like the smell of lamb cooking, and it tastes worse than it smells.

gyros... mmm mmmm mmmmmmmmm

quote:

Originally posted by Dutch:
There's quite a few Basque around here that eat lamb. It's impossible to find in the grocery store, other than the occasional leg of lamb.

A hotbed of Basque seperatists in Idaho? Who'd a thunk it. In France lamb is eaten regularly and rack of lamb is on the menu in many restaurants. It is very tasty.

Price and availability as well as the average housefrau has no idea how to cook or serve it. I have eaten some great lamb and some poor mutton. As for those who say I am above eating sheep, Campbell Soup co used to be the largest buyer of old broken mouth ewes [7 yrs+] Gianni.

About 2 weeks about I helped shear 2500 yearling lambs, I'll pass on the lamb chops for a while!!

Just ate some lamb chops over the weekend. Seasoned with some cracked black pepper, salt, & garlic. Then cooked over charcoal till medium rare. I ate atleast a pound.....

Years ago, I bought a 5-yr-old dry ewe for 15 dollars...hawled it to processor...who charged 15 dollars for everything up to labelled packages. I cooked some.....couldn't stomach it...tried it again....impossible! My dog ate ahelluvalot of sheep that winter.
But...LOVE leg-of-lamb, lamb provencale (recipe in NY Time Int'l. cookbook), lamb chops. But, it is very costly here in Florida ....dunno costs elsewhere. It's big in Greece; served everywhere in varied ways....generally excellent..."delightful" skinned sheepheads in open-air markets .... no opportunity to try.

quote:

Years ago, I bought a 5-yr-old dry ewe for 15 dollars...hawled it to processor...who charged 15 dollars for everything up to labelled packages. I cooked some.....couldn't stomach it...tried it again....impossible! My dog ate ahelluvalot of sheep that winter.

yep i think this is where most people are getting caught, they try the old mutton thinking its lamb and it is rough as hell. the ethiopian sheep sounds the same.

you gotta get it when its young under 12 months at 12 months there nearly full size anyway but they get stinky quickly after that.

i spent 4 months on a sheep farm last year, we ate heeps of lamb, the oldest meat was 12 months, anything older was fed to the dogs. the BEST lamb was the larger lambs that were killed the day they were weened. it was like butter. mmmmmmmmmmmm best lamb i ever tasted.
greg

Over 12 months it is called a Hoggart or Mutton. Still good but has to be cooked properly!

My family loves lamb and we have it fairly often, price and availability is sometimes an issue.

I thought that there were quite a few sheep keepers in the Rockies, but may be I'm wrong on the scale of that. I know that the US National Park Service used to license sheep grazing on some upland summer range both in the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies. Here in the UK, and in paticular my part of Wiltshire, sheep have always been a part of our farming systems. They were kept originally for their wool and many medieval fortunes were made from it, it became even more important in the Napoleonic era. This came to an end in the 1940's when the great chalk grasslands of Wiltshire were ploughed for wheat production in an effort to survive the German blockade and by that time cotton had taken over the textile industry. So now lamb meat, once a by product of wool production, is one of our finest products. With our mild climate and the herb rich grasslands of our chalk hills we can both raise and fatten lambs in suckler herds. We don't use feed lots. Lambs go to market at the age of 12 - 20 weeks depending on breed. Roast lamb is sweet and fatty: utterly delicious! I try to swap two roe deer carcases for one fat lamb each year.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnHunt:
gyros... mmm mmmm mmmmmmmmm

The thing is that "Gyro" is usually BEEF.
(it's quite rare to find lamb gyro)

It's the Souvlaki(sp?) that is made with Lamb kabobs.

quote:

Originally posted by MT Gianni:
Price and availability as well as the average housefrau has no idea how to cook or serve it. I have eaten some great lamb and some poor mutton. As for those who say I am above eating sheep, Campbell Soup co used to be the largest buyer of old broken mouth ewes [7 yrs+] Gianni.

The vast majority of which was turned into Campbells "Scotch Broth", most of which is actually sold in Canada and overseas.

Frankly I think Scotch Broth is much better than Chicken soup when you have a cold, that mutton grease sure does soothe a sore throat...

I suspect that that 1lb/per capita consumed in the US is divided among those of Scots, Greek and Middle-eastern and north african descent, just like the Goatmeat (Cabrio) consumed in the US is eaten primarily by those of Carribean, Latino and first generation west african descent.

Yes there are a lot of Sheep in the US, but they are raised for their wool, not their flesh.
and those that are slaughtered are far more likely to be exported, either "on the hoof" or "on the hook".

AD

We really like it at our house. Don't buy it much because of cost and availability in the store. We used to raise our own (romney marsh) and found the taste so mild that even old mutton was pretty good.
A friend once gave us his black-legged sheep (can't remember the breed) and one old girl had arthritis real bad, so we put her down. We ate her, but it was the worst mutton I'd ever had.

When I was a kid in Brooklyn when we wanted lamb we went to the Greek grocery since they had much better lamb than the regular grocery.The average American has a very limited diet.Beef ,chicken and a small amout of pork is all !! Lamb ,goat and other weird stuff like squid ,whale ,guinea hen all make good meals if you know what to do with it !Most on this forum are hunters so what wrong with venison and other game ??

My wife loves "Rack of Lamb" and I can tolerate it when it all that's available... She basically hates redmeat, and I thrive on beef and venison.

i grew up in san angelo tx... the "wool capital of the world"... and never ate lamb until i went back east to visit friends....around age 25..eating sheep (deragatory term intended) was a no-no...unless you were one of the hired ranch-hands that food was furnished to...goat meat was the typical bbq fare at high school homecomings and family reunions...i've had lamb chops, but prefer a good mesquite-cooked ribeye steak....i had the bumper sticker on all my trucks::: eat more lamb, 50,000 coyotes can't be wrong...

Hmmmm...Lamb. You guys almost make me feel bad to have prepared mussels and spinach, tonight.

Lamb chops, grilled, medium rare are simply superb!!!

I say you should all go out and buy some NEW ZEALAND lamb, its much better than the aussy stuff!!! roast lamb is A+++

greghud, mutton is good for mixing up with beef and venison for sausages etc..

although i do prefer beef to venison, it tends to be easier to cook, doesnt dry out so much and has a bit of fat in it (pearling i think its called??)

actually roast beef is pretty good..so is roast mutton..hmm never had roast venison maybe im missing out!!

Geeze do I like mussels!