Sheep meat, and the meat whose flavour varies most with what the animal grazed — salt marsh, mountain herb and hard scrub all show up on the plate.
Where it comes from
Sheep were among the first livestock domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, valued for wool and milk as much as meat. They graze land too poor and steep for cattle, which is why lamb is central from the Atlas mountains to the Caucasus to the Welsh hills and the high Andes.
Lamb is under a year old; hogget is a year or two; mutton is older, stronger and much cheaper, and it is the mutton traditions — slow curries, harira, haggis — that carry most of the flavour in world cooking.
Varieties
- Leg — Lean, roasted pink, or slow-cooked for hours until it falls apart. Both work; the middle does not.
- Shoulder — Fattier and more forgiving than leg. The cut for a long braise, and for most tagines and curries.
- Shank — One muscle, heavy in collagen, made for a two-hour braise.
- Rack and cutlets — The prime fast cut, best served pink.
- Breast and belly — Cheap, fatty, excellent slow-roasted or rolled and stuffed.
- Goat — A different animal but cooked in the same places and ways. Leaner, needs longer and wetter cooking.
In the kitchen
Lamb fat sets hard and tastes waxy when cold, which is why lamb dishes are served hot and why a lamb stew is worth skimming properly after chilling.
The strong flavour people either want or avoid lives largely in the fat. Trimming changes the dish more than any seasoning will.
Dishes with lamb
BiryaniFragrant layered rice with marinated meat; Hyderabadi and Lucknowi styles famed
Kukurecseasoned lamb offal wrapped in intestine and roasted on a spitMauritaniaCherchemCracked wheat cooked with beans and mutton and scented with dried herbs
Couscoushand-rolled steamed semolina with vegetable and meat broth; the national dish
Afrachopped grilled meat with raw onion, mustard and pepper; nightlife ritual
Bouzeloufsinged sheep's head steamed with cumin, eaten for the cheek and tongueMongoliaBoodogGoat or marmot roasted from within by hot stones placed inside the carcassTurkeyAdana kebabspicy hand-minced lamb skewer grilled over charcoal, served with sumac onionsLamb is tagged on 305 dishes from 97 countries in the atlas. These notes are written from general knowledge and carry no per-fact citation — see About.