Saturday, November 11, 2006

Sheep-eating 101

I went to Jason's party last night and can now officially say that I have eaten lamb!
My verdict: It's ok. Not bad! I was worried I might really hate it, because it seems most of my family/friends don't like it. Jason explained that this was free-range lamb, which would be nice and tender, and would have a texture somewhat reminiscent of beef.
He turned out to be right. It was pretty close to the texture of beef.
Jason grew up on a sheep farm, so I trusted him to know what he was talking about on this topic. He explained that mutton (meat from older sheep) tends to be stronger-flavored, especially in the fatty sections. It sounds like that might have been what my mother had during her unpleasant culinary experience, years ago. She described the lamb-meat she ate as being strong and fatty with an ugly taste that seemed to spread all across the roof of her mouth. Maybe she was eating mutton instead of lamb.
Jason roasted this leg of lamb on the grill with ginger and garlic. He said he would have liked to include rosemary, but there wasn't any fresh rosemary available. And there was no mint jelly, either. I thought all lamb had to include mint jelly, sort of like how all french fries must include ketchup. (sorry, aisby...)
In addition to the lamb, we had mashed potatoes with asiago cheese, butter, sour cream, and whole cloves of roasted garlic. (Yum.)

6 comments:

STAK said...

FLESH EATER!!!!!.............

Anonymous said...

I was not aware of said party :-( boo

Unknown said...

gross!

the ketchup that is...

Janna said...

(Gasp!)
Onionboy! You don't like ketchup???!!
Oh, you poor misguided soul...

Merritt Fields said...

Lamb is quite delicious. I'm not a fan of mint jelly, though and I've never had it on lamb.

I'm glad to see that onionboy has great taste!!!

Mo and The Purries said...

Janna, for someone who refuses to eat mayonnaise, calling someone a poor misguided soul for not liking ketchup is like the pot calling the condiment horseradishy.
Or something like that.
I mean, it's not like he foreswore Tabasco or anything really sacriligious!
Glad you had a good meal, and that you've expanded your horizons, if ewe know what I mean!
:)