Mutton dressed as lamb
A bit of nostalgia. Lincolnshire was once known as the Sheep County, mostly wool growing, but the meat wasn’t wasted.
Now I haven't had a decent ‘lamb’ stew since my youth. Where can you buy ‘properly’ reared, grown and prepared mutton these days? The taste and texture of this, if my memory is correct, is a so much better ingredient for stewing in my opinion. I loved it. Why is it pretty much absent in our shops these days? Unfortunately we have to put up with lamb dressed as mutton it seems.
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We’ve bought it a few times from thebutchers in hope when we’ve been to Castleton. However, I’ve never seen it for sale anywhere else.
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Ugh. Before my veggie days, as a child we had a roast each Sunday. Very occasionally Mum would do mutton. I never ate it. Mind, I didn’t like Lamb either. Mum was a fantastic cook, so it would be unfair to blame the cooking.
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If you're near a Booths store - there's mutton in the Christmas Book. Order and collect.Mutton and Lamb pages
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Used to like Beef, Pork and Chicken. But don’t eat any of it nowadays. One of my BILs bred goats, his family liked goat meat.
We have been to a rather nice Middle Eastern eatery in Sowerby Bridge. It specialises in stir fries, you choose your oil, stir fry ingredients, sauce and they flash fry a small bowl for you, then you can go back and have another different bowl. They offered Crocodile, Ostrich and Kangaroo meat alongside the usual chicken, pork, beef. Needless to say, we stuck to the vegetables, but friends tried some of the other stuff. We don’t miss the meat at all, it’s our normal diet nowadays. Don’t mind if others partake though, it’s one of life’s choices.
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I am guessing the famous butchers in Ilkley probably has a good variety of cuts as well. Can’t remember it’s name at the moment…..🤔
Edit…Lishman’s
https://www.lishmansbutchers.co.uk/
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My feeling is that the demand being low, what mutton comes through is used elsewhere. You may be getting it in ready meals and other ready prepared dishes, and restaurants, but more likely going into pet food, your dog will never notice.
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We do tend to be a bit reserved in this country. Pigs trotters, ears and cheeks at Leclerc this September. Can’t see that happening at Tesco anytime soon.😂 Years ago we used to have lambs hearts regularly, stuffed and slow cooked in a stock or wine😋 Although they do occasionally appear in Tesco, they are not a common feature anywhere.
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I can honesty say I've never had Mutton, although maybe my parents gave it to me when young but I can't remember ever asking for it anywhere or at anytime. But from the above comments I'm going to give it a go.
My dad's favourite was Tripe, which again I've never tried.
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My dad's favourite was Tripe, which again I've never tried.
I have a few times. Once in France where the chef had lots of awards for his tripe. The sauce was great, the tripe not so much. My grandmother used to poach it in milk and it was revolting. I think it’s more of a texture thing than the taste of the tripe.
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My mistake, Lishman’s is in Otley, not Ilkley🤭
We used to eat tripe as children, because Dad liked it. Pig’s Bag as well. It is an acquired taste though.
I always think UK in general is somewhat “disconnected” in terms of meat. Some folks grow up not making the connection between what they see roaming the fields, and what they see shrink wrapped in the supermarkets. We once had a builder doing some work for us in the 1980’s, asking what were those strange things were at the bottom of our garden? He’d never seen a live chicken before🤷♀️ Someone else who lived not far away knocked on door with a little girl, and asked what made that strange noise in our garden? It was our cockerel🤭
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We used to have Trotters once a week when my mother went shopping to Chester market. Loved them. Talking of France we were eating a meal in Alsace one year when OH extracted the toenail/toe off a trotter in the stew so she's definitely off them for life.
We used to get mutton or neck of lamb. Can't say lamb is my favourite food and OH doesn't like the taste.
We can get mutton locally if we wanted it but you have to go to the farmer direct in the hills. There are a couple of villagers who swear by it.
You're right about ignorance Ttda.
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Anything sheep is a firm favourite for the Yorkshire Curry Houses (of which there are many, and some are absolutely outstanding cuisine) along of course with all sorts of other meats, seafood and veggie.
Words………..I like how animals in the field have kept their Anglo Saxon names, but once killed and for the table become French!
Good old William the Conqueror! Not much Boeuf, Mouton and Porc eaten by your average Saxon serf…..🤣0 -
I guess our culinary tastes and habits changed over the years. Many of those ‘exotic’ meats we see on the continent were of course also part of our traditional diets.
I wonder why this changed, it may have happened at the same time that factory produced sliced white bread become a staple food. My grandparents ate a surprising variety of protein which included rabbit, hare, pigeon, rook, pheasant, partridge along with a whole range of farmed meats and many offals. Along with mutton I also remember hogget. There was also the capon, can you still buy them? I think we are only now broadening our tastes again. Must buy some mutton and find a traditional recipe, I hope it will be as remembered.1 -
Yes, it’s good that you shoot for the table LLM. Unfortunately we hear of hundreds of millions of pheasant released for sporting shoots are dumped although a very small percentage goes for pet food. What a shame, they should be going into our butchers. I remember them strung outside the shops along with pigeon, rabbit and hare which is where my grandparents got most of theirs. Such a travesty that the deer problem could not be better ‘resolved’in our diet! I will add that I’m totally against shooting for fun when no use is made of the kill although I understand sensible culls are needed in some circumstances. It’s the ritualised fun I deplore.
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I do agree, it’s such a shame that these potential protein sources are wasted, it’s deplorable really.
As a young man I had a friend whose father was an HGV driver and a ‘user’ of road kill. He and his family had butchery skills amongst them and deer, amongst other animal carcasses, were regularly collected from the roadside and ‘processed’. I’m not sure of the legalities but the family enjoyed the ‘spoils’.At the time I found it a little bizarre but if they knew what they were doing, and I see no reason why they didn’t I can now see that it was quite an effective and free addition to their diet.0 -
As well as the texture and looks which was bad enough, also for me it was that was (perhaps wrongly and illogically) where it came from.
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We had a very varied diet as children, in terms of meat. Always had plenty of chicken, as my Grandfather had a small holding, so we always had a Sunday roast. Turkey at Christmas, (no one liked Goose). Mum would regularly get offal such as liver, kidneys, and I enjoyed it. Not keen on Tongue though. She made lots of meat pies, stews, etc….. Has anyone ever heard of a dish called Panackelty? Might be Panhaggaty in other regions. Beef, onions, other veg, lots of variations. She used to do a really lovely treat using Corned Beef as well….onions, Corned beef, rice, lots of seasoning, then wrapped in cabbage leaves, and steamed. Mum also never lost her love every now and then for Spam. (Sounds awful, but you can still buy it) Thickish slices, fried until crisp on the outside, still a bit soft inside. WW2 had a lot to answer for😁 We did enjoy roast beef and roast pork as well, leftovers went into minced beef and onion pie on Mondays😁
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Yes, TtDA, I’ve heard of it. Here’s a recipe, apparently a Northumbrian delight I’ve never tried. There was a similar dish in Cumbria I have eaten though similar ingredients and preparation except that had mutton in it.
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