Although we had fish for dinner today (not home produced) it was still very much a meat day. We sent our wether off last week and this afternoon I went to collect it from our butcher. The wether, or castrated male sheep, acted as a companion to our ram so that at the times when the latter was separated from the ewes he would not be alone. We bred him about five years ago but it was now time for him to move on.
You will be hard pressed to find mutton in a high street butcher, and of course impossible from supermarkets, which is a shame because it is a very tasty meat. Despite it being once regarded as one of the poorer cuts, now it seems to be available only from speciality outlets, and rather expensive too. The ideal age for mutton is usually regarded as about 3-4 years of age. As our wether was bit older than that we decided not to have him jointed but for diced mutton and minced mutton instead.
I often cook mutton curry but curry is not the only option and it is as versatile as any other meat. And just as tender - there's no need to stew it for hours on end.
Personally I find wearing a dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves rather impractical when getting lunch. Now I'm a pensioner, perhaps I should change my wardrobe, don't want to be "mutton dressed as lamb"!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how far up or down the social scale dresses with leg-of-mutton sleeves went. Perhaps for those ladies who wore this style, getting lunch was just a matter of ringing a bell.
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