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Mutton Stew
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Hivernant
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Anyone like a good mutton stew?


"I don't know where we're goin', but there's no sense bein' late." Quigley
 
Posts: 104 | Location: The Beehive State | Registered: 12 April 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Yes.
 
Posts: 507 | Registered: 14 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of MountainRanger
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my family is old Scottish, and to them mutton equals something like turned inside-out sheep or goat stomach stew. When a family lives on an island (like those from the British Isles) one will eat anything. I've had it. 'nuff said. Even the most horribly greasy hamburger with half cooked bacon, or even bird snot is preferable. No mutton, no nutton like it... hehe,

Oh, sorry to say this, but to me (and the American side of the family) 'good mutton stew' a contridiction in terms.


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Maybe you've never been around a good cook. Most people who condemn it have never tried it.
 
Posts: 507 | Registered: 14 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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No, actually, it may be the quality of the "mutton"... my uncle ate a lot of it as a young man and couldn't stand the smell ever after as a result (airman WWII in England)

I was surprised when I found that "mutton" is from a sheep at least two years old...but after that...there is often no telling how old the animal was when butchered. So...for some folks...in an area where the sheep are kept for wool production, the mutton is from a rather old animal, which the wool producer has decided to cull. Imagine judging beef after only eating old Ox as the source?

Probably akin to folks who have only eaten venison from large, old, trophy bucks....and say they don't like the flavor nor the texture...while a two or three year doe, especially when she'd been into corn and soybean fields...is delightful.

BTW...it's not a surprise that the English like their mutton often with a good, strong curry... Eeker I've had mutton from a five year old animal, and I've had hogget (sheep not over two years old), and curry did help the mutton, while the hogget was pretty good roasted.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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I whole heartedly concer with mountain ranger
on this and I was on a dadburn sheep ranch when I was younger I hates sheep,and mutton.
 
Posts: 196 | Location: kenai peninsula alaska | Registered: 09 April 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
Picture of TurkeyCreek
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No offense to any sheepherders out there but we used to call em range maggots and they taste like maggot bait to me. Just my opinion. Rather eat me some good antelope meat any day.


"They do not live their lives 'by your leave'! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, bearing their children along the way!" - Cora Monroe - "Last Of The Mohicans"
 
Posts: 186 | Location: Turkey Creek on Cimarron Drainage | Registered: 10 September 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Ok,enough of the negative side....I don't mind mutton at all,and hogget(?)is a new term to me.I thought anything over a year was mutton.I grew up on a small farm,and ate lots of stuff most wouldn't even try,including Guinea Pig.My wife,on the other hand ,can't abide any meat from sheep at all.So we don't eat it.
I found that mutton went well in a good,spicy spaghetti sauce....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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I've feasted on (expertly cooked) leg of lamb and liked it as long as it was hot on the plate. When I allowed it to cool down to room temp, it was very tallowy and left that funky film on the roof of my mouth. My host at the dinner wanted me to try the lamb with his own mint jelly. It was not of my liking, as it reminded me of the taste of TOOTH PASTE! I like a lot of different condiments on my meat, but tooth paste isn't one of em!
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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One thing that all ranch people know, and urban consumers don't, is that older animals are good and have more flavor than the young stuff. Ranch people usually eat dry cows. They put them on the gain. An animal that is on gain is like new meat. An animal that is losing weight (meat) is not nearly as good. Rural people in the west when I was growing up had a saying about deer "the reder they are the better they are". Meaning they are at their best eating in July and August. Any one who looks at deer every day knows what that means. When feed starts going dormant they start dropping off a bit. Meat quality does too.
Bull elk killed in September are great eating, the same bull killed in mid October will be not nearly as good and I don't even want to try it if it was killed in November. Same with mule deer. Whitetails in this country are good right into the rut. I've killed whitetail bucks in late November that were as good as anyone could want. Same with mutton. And if you don't kill and take care of meat right it will be bad any way.
 
Posts: 507 | Registered: 14 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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well, I've had mutton, but you could be right about my not having been around someone who could 'cook it properly'. I've had it cooked by two generations of ladies in my family (mom and grandmom) and I really didn't like the aroma when cooking and it tasted like the descriptions of starving soldiers in the French and Indian War cooking and eating their cartridge boxes. But... to them's what like it, Bon Appitite


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Only had it in curry...Curry goat's a big thing in my (Jamaican) family, but mutton's easier to get.

Not had it in ages (don't speak to my family) must get some.
 
Posts: 4 | Location: The Midlands, England. | Registered: 27 October 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Goat,now there's a real treat,if prepared right.Curry would be a good one.....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Trouble with goats is the pot bellied buggers don't dress out good, percentage wise. Unless you get them for free. I know people who keep there eyes open for those "free to a good home" adds for everything from Shetland ponies to llamas and emus. Meat's meat.
 
Posts: 507 | Registered: 14 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Back in the day, when I was younger and running around in a jungle in a no-see-me suit and living and fighting with Montagnards, I was offered a deep fried rooster head after a particularly nasty fight where we liberated a whole bunch of NVA pigs and chickens... This head came out of the pan with beak, comb, most of the feathers, eyeballs and all. As I told the village chief who was also the commander of the force I was working with when he offered this to me... 'oh no, thieu-ta (major), because of your leadership you deserve this honor.. etc,etc. Got out of that one by the skin of my chinny chin chin. I didn't get out of water buffalo, monkey, dog or snake though (and snake doesn't taste 'just like chicken' to me... tastes like snake). Had them plenty of times and I swear, I prefer any of them to mutton. Maybe mutton is like eggs. The more you kill the taste of them with onions, bacon bits, any kind of veggies motor oil, dirty socks and spices, the better they are.

Just goes to show that social, ethnic or geographical tastes in particular foods can sure make one ponder and spur discussion and bring on spontaneous heart burn!


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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My Grandfather had two brothers that married my grandmother's two sisters and that side of the family were all Scots, English and a little Irish. Great uncle Ben had run away from home when he was 12 years old and spent most all of his teen years in Western Montana and Idaho as a ranch hand and entering rodeos in the area. By the time I was born (early '50's) uncle Ben had moved back to Minnesota and farmed with two horses. Belgian sisters named Daisy & Dolly that were two years apart in age, Daisy being the oldest. He never owned a tractor and only owned two automobiles in his life a 1938 Chevrolet 2 door sedan and a 1959 four door Impala. Now, when I came along uncle Ben, like his two brothers were walking with two canes and whether is was from a genetic predisposition or too many bucking horses in his youth only the good Lord knows for sure.

Anyway, my mom's side of the family were of Scot/Brit/Irish blood and that side of the family really cooked in the traditions of their forefathers.

Somewhere around 1959 I was invited down to Ben and Fona Le's house for a weekend stay on the farm. The weekend was very enjoyable except for one thing ... Mutton!

I must confess, the women on both sides on the pedigree are were wonderful cooks and I really have never mentioned this encounter with mutton to anyone before. Aunt Fona Le had roasted this mutton and we had fresh asparagus, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and fresh rhubarb pie! I was told I had to clean my plate in order to get that rhubarb pie. I spent about 90 minutes trying to eat that mutton, tough really doesn't cover it! Flavor? I'd rather have sweatsock soup! Would I eat it again? Ya, I would try it, I mean I like Haggis, pickle pork hocks, sardines and beer kaese cheese, although blind robins are much too salty for me.

I can see where a bit of curry powder would be helpful or perhaps some cumin and caraway even the old fisherman's recipe for sheephead fish. Nail the fish to a board, steam for two hours, remove fish and nails, then eat the board.

The biggest problem in making mutton these days is finding an old goat ... except for you fellas that is.
 
Posts: 32 | Location: Southern Minnesota | Registered: 24 May 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Heh,if you're really wanting some mutton,go find a livestock auction out in the country somewhere,and buy an old ewe.At least it'll be fresh....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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who're ewe callin' old? hehe


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Big Grin


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Notchy Bob
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Well...

I don't have a lot of experience with mutton, and maybe it's not my favorite meat, but I like it.

We had an occasional lamb chop when I was growing up. I recall eating them, but I don't remember that much about them, good or bad.

My next experience was on a trip to the Four Corners area in about 1975 with a group from the anthropology department of the college I was attending. One night, a Navaho family cooked supper for us. They made a pot of boiled mutton with blue corn dumplings. I remember it was kind of bland, but not bad at all.

In 1986, I went to New Zealand. The rumor was they had more sheep than people, and some form of Ovis was the most readily available meat. Chicken, believe it or not, was the most expensive. Anyway, lamb was from a sheep under one year old, hoggett was a sheep between one and two years old, and mutton was the meat from a sheep of two years and older. Hoggett seemed to be the meat of choice for most occasions. In any event, we ate some of it and I thought it was fine.

So, a couple of years ago, I was reading something and found a reference to Karelian people. I had never heard of them. I researched it a bit, and found Karelia is a region in northwestern Russia. The people there are more like Finns than Russians, real outdoorsmen, but their major contributions to the world at large are the Kalevala (considered to be the Finnish national epic, but most of the tales within it are from Karelia), and a type of stew that contains several species of meat, including mutton. Spellings vary, but it is usually called something like "Karjalan Paisti." I experimented with it some and came up with this recipe:


Karelian Hot Pot

~ 1 pound lean beef (stew meat should work)
~ 1 pound pork loin (loin chops will do)
~ 1 pound lamb (shoulder blade chops will serve, but will need to be boned)
2 marrowbones
2 tablespoons of butter
3 medium sweet onions, peeled and chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
9 whole peppercorns
9 whole allspice buds
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon Gravy Master
3-4 cups water

Cut the meat into 1” cubes and brown it in the butter.

Get a large, heavy pot. Layer half the onions in the bottom, put in one marrowbone, then put in half of the meat. Add half of the carrots and spices and one bay leaf. Repeat, with another layer of onion, the other marrowbone, the rest of the meat, and the rest of the carrots and spices and the other bay leaf. Add the water and Gravy Master, with enough liquid to not quite cover everything.

Bake in the oven uncovered at 275º until everything is tender. This may take 4-5 hours. Stir or mix it a couple of times while it is cooking.


You'll notice that it takes a long time to cook, but it is not difficult to put together and I thought it came out pretty good. Even my wife liked it.

Now I'm thinking I need to cook it again. You guys are a bad influence...

Notchy Bob


"Should have kept the old ways just as much as I could, and the tradition that guarded us. Should have rode horses. Kept dogs."

from The Antelope Wife
 
Posts: 333 | Location: Florida | Registered: 24 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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