On 30 Sep 2005 07:19:49 +0200, Wayne Boatwright
I was under the impression from previous newsgroups postings (some years back) that American's weren't very familiar with lamb, nor did they like the taste. I believe the main complaint was a taste of fattiness.
In NZ, for the animal to be clbuttified as a lamb it must be under 12 months of age and "not have any permanent incisors in wear", which means if the lamb gets permanent incisors early, which it can if the season is benign, it's clbutted as mutton. Our export lamb (if you buy NZ lamb) is not allowed to exceed 12.5kg (28lb), so they are pretty young and tender. I believe Australian lamb is also of very high quality.
Mutton is a tougher cut, but on the other hand, has more flavour. That might be the gamey taste you refer to.
I won't quibble that roast lamb does taste a bit fatty. Why, I'm not sure, because it is a very lean meat, and calorie wise, it's no worse than beef (I think, Sheldon!)
Lamb is readily available here and used to be the main meat consumed until user-pays came in. Now we have to pay export prices in our own country and personally, I don't buy it often. But it does have that special taste that we love, particularly with mint sauce.
When you look at the price of lamb per kilogram here, it looks compebreastive with other meats but it isn't. There's more bone than in pork and chicken cuts, so it works out dearer a roast cut. So lamb is very expensive for us, too, compared with other meats. I wait for it to go on special.
Until recently, lamb shanks were virtually a throw-away cut. Now restaurants have made them popular and we pay too much for them too, maybe NZ$7 for two (about US$5) -- one NZ$=US70c)
..... So Damsel in Distress, if you want to try lamb, let me know your preferred tastes, and I'll give you a recipe a think might be appropriate.
Kathy
