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Differences in the taste of sheep breeds


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Dear Shepherds,

 

I believe British mutton is 2 - 2/12 years old. I've tried our own 4 year old mutton and the dogs liked it. What they eat does make a difference - I think I heard somewhere that french butchers paid a premium for Scottish lambs finished on thyme. Border Springs supplies Kathadin meat to the east coast restaurants who list their purveyors on the menu. Grass fed, no stress, brilliant marketing.

 

Donald McCaig

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I think I ate mutton once as a child and recall fat sticking to the roof of my mouth. Then it was æ poor man's meat and most of us are a lot better off now so there isn't really a market for it in it's own right.

 

I imagine some of the ingredients of processed foods are probably mutton though. Waste not, want not.

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If you look at cultures that utilize a lot of the less desirable meats, such as those that come from older animals, you see very strong flavors and low/slow cooking methods. It's no coincidence, since these are required to make them pleasurable to eat. Done right and these recipes are extremely tasty.

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I just bought a Katahdin lamb (ram lamb) from someone who usually butchers in August, but because of this year's drought had had to hold off until October. She was very interested in my assessment of the flavor (especially as I usually buy lamb from wool breeds - Border Cheviot crosses). She was worried that because her lambs had been processed during the peak mating season (all her ram lambs are intact), that they might have had a stronger flavor. So perhaps add "time of year", and whether or not ram lambs are intact, as yet another variable affecting flavor? I've heard that only dogs will consider eating rams processed right after breeding season ends. And that the odor will permeate your freezer.

 

I actually like flavorful meat. Maybe I don't have a sufficiently subtle palate, but I didn't notice that this lamb I just bought was offensively strong. But then I've been known to eat even mutton when I lived in the UK - yes, mutton as prepared at a girl's boarding school, with cooking that rivaled the worst you've ever dreamed of in your worst nightmare. (Except for their rice pudding - I'm still searching for that recipe!).

 

I'm planning on eating my own cull ewes. I'm quite fond of curries or other methods of preparation that I think would complement strong(er) flavors. My husband grew up in south Asia, and knows that most of the "lamb" curries he ate were actually mutton.

 

I'm also thinking I'll probably wether my own ram lambs - and will dock tails. I have heard that the ethnic community prefers intact males (including intact tails), but management sure seems simpler until I have more $$ for fencing if I wether the ram lambs. And as my lambs (basically Romney x Cheviot crosses) will be higher on the lanolin scale than Katahdins, my customers may well prefer it if I do anything I can to keep the flavor mild. The ram lambs I bought for breeding were only around 75 lb live weight in early September (but they sure have gorgeous fleeces, as well as good disease resistance), so I'll probably be holding off as long as possible to process their sons next year, which would mean processing them during prime breeding season - potentially causing them to be "gamier" if I were to leave them intact.

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Yay!

Well with just over a week to go last Thursday we fell off the pedestal; a guy living in the next valley brought in a lamb whose carcass weight was a whopping 33 kg...!

 

I had gotten my hopes a bit up as in that last week a large part of the slaughter is culling ewes, so we were really close...

 

Still we are not complaining, average weight is pretty good, considering the lousy weather we had here last summer (though it looks like that rough season cost us some lambs, there are too many still missing).

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A bit OT, but I had a great grand uncle who used to tell about a hunting trip he took to Mexico. They were shooting wild turkeys, and the turkeys had been eating chilies growing in the fields. He said the meat was so hot they couldn't eat it. Had to throw them out. Might have been a tall tale - he was, after all, a Texan. But I never forgot the story.

 

I'd like to taste the lamb that Tea grows. Eating browse from forest understory. I have wondered how different it would taste from other lamb. I know the pasture-raised chicken was certainly different from the broiler-shed kind. Older bird with more leg and less breast. Firmer flesh and more robust flavor.

 

I love the way the house smells when I'm roasting leg of lamb. The smell so thick in the air, like you could cut a piece of it and chew it up.

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I'd like to taste the lamb that Tea grows. Eating browse from forest understory. I have wondered how different it would taste from other lamb. I know the pasture-raised chicken was certainly different from the broiler-shed kind. Older bird with more leg and less breast. Firmer flesh and more robust flavor.

 

I love the way the house smells when I'm roasting leg of lamb. The smell so thick in the air, like you could cut a piece of it and chew it up.

Some say that Tea's lamb tastes so good not because of what they eat, but because they're from outer space! :D:wub:

(Plug: read her wonderful book: American Lambs if you haven't already).

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Geonni, your post was making me hungry!

 

A while ago I was reading up on using sheep/goats for brush and/or weed control and was wondering a lot about this. If sheep can be used to eat knapweed, bindweed, (poison oak?), star thistle, etc... does this affect the taste? Or if timed appropriately, perhaps the "weeds" are milder in flavor...?

 

I have a lot to learn... but also wondering if dairy sheep/goats would be inappropriate for some weed control given that it would affect the milk?

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Well with just over a week to go last Thursday we fell off the pedestal; a guy living in the next valley brought in a lamb whose carcass weight was a whopping 33 kg...!

 

I had gotten my hopes a bit up as in that last week a large part of the slaughter is culling ewes, so we were really close...

 

Still we are not complaining, average weight is pretty good, considering the lousy weather we had here last summer (though it looks like that rough season cost us some lambs, there are too many still missing).

Smalahundar,

Congratulations on your good year!

 

I am curious what the key factors are in your region for getting good weights? Is it rain and more/better grass, or is it milder/warmer weather for lambs...?

 

Are the sheep that are out all summer unsupervised?

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My daughter noticed a change in the flavor of our goat milk after I switched them to brush patrol off of pasture. She thought it tasted more goaty. I couldn't tell a difference. Goat people say their mineral uptake affects the flavor of the milk.

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Re: goat's milk.

 

I visited Carl Sandburg's home south of Asheville, NC. My husband received his Masters in English so he was fascinated by the CS mementos, photos, exhibits, etc. But I was fascinated by the goats! His wife raised dairy goats, and during her lifetime she had some of the top-performing dairy goats in the country. She was considered the top expert, and serious dairy goat people definitely wanted to add her goat genetics to their herd. They have kept a few goats on site.

 

She attributed drinking goat milk for keeping her family so healthy.

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Oh you guys are fun, yes it does really affect taste depending on what they eat. The big goat flock that we seriously used for brush control we did not use for meat unless they had been on pasture for a season.

 

The sheep flock that we foraged on the island was eating basically what deer eat. They were very mild tasting as was the dairy goat's milk that foraged with them.

 

My cows/goats/sheep I milked on pasture, their milk tasted Less sweet if I did not grain them. Less Sweet. However I did not want to grain. The grass based butter was imo tastier, as was the cheese.

 

Here in The NE of Wa state there is not the same kinds of brush and grasses so we shall see. Also I have no dairy animals here, bred specifically for dairy, land does not support them, winters too severe.

 

The deer here are strongly flavoured, more so than on the island.

 

American Lambs! So glad you like it. It was fun to write. However the stories were after all fiction.

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Smalahundar,

Congratulations on your good year!

 

I am curious what the key factors are in your region for getting good weights? Is it rain and more/better grass, or is it milder/warmer weather for lambs...?

 

Are the sheep that are out all summer unsupervised?

Thanks.

Yeah, those environmental factors heavily play into it, along with good husbandry, feeding during gestation, deworming vaccinations etc.

 

Also (and not in the least) selective breeding; Iceland has a very well organized national registration of all sheep, in a central database called Fjarvis. Every farmer has his flock registered there and so there is good info on the productivity of individual sheep along with their pedigree. The main focus of the breeding is quality of meat.

 

Yes the sheep are unsupervised all summer, after lambing in spring they are usually put out on pasture for a short while and then they are driven out on the high lands, unfenced territory.

My sheep could walk to Reykjavik if they liked (they would have to cross the highland, some rivers and mountain ranges though...), on the other side of the island. We are just about done with the fall round up, we are still two ewes short with their lambs along with an unusual high amount of lambs whose mothers/siblings have come home. They most likely died under the rather harsh conditions of the early summer this year.

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Iv'e been raising and eating my lamb for 10yrs, Montadales, Suffolks, Wool crosses and Suffolk/Montadale crosses, I can't tell the difference between them, and the people who buy from me love the taste and are return customers. My lambs get grain as soon as they can reach the feed bucket and my butcher (who buys any extras I have) always compliments the marbling that my meat has,

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This thread has been making me hungry. I decided to keep one package of my ground mutton and try it for myself. I am wondering if anyone has any really good recipes.

 

Samantha

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