What is a mutton cross between a sheep and a goat?
The difference between lamb, hogget, and mutton
Lamb is less than a year old (usually four to six months) and minus its incisor teeth.
If it’s classified as salt-marsh lamb, or agneau de pré-salé you know you’re going to be in for a relatively similar price hike as for bonnotte potatoes. This lamb grazes on salt-rich grasses – a diet which makes its flavour delicately more interesting. Lamb raised around the island of Mont St Michel and around the Somme estuary has now the AOC protected designation.
Hogget is between one and two years old.
Mutton is over two – and it’s best eaten at four years.
An easy rule is the darker the colour of the meat, the older the animal will be.
The main difference between mutton and lamb is that mutton tends to have more flavour and a little more fat, but it can be tougher so it benefits from long, slow cooking – it’s particularly suitable for stews (see mutton ragout). The trouble is that mutton has earned itself such a bad name that it can be hard to find.
Which, of all of them, is the best? Tom Parker Bowles puts it best:
“Hogget is simply lamb with wanderlust and a decent education. It’s killed when it’s between twelve and eighteen months old, so it knows a thing or two about flavour. It doesn’t overwhelm like old mutton, yet still bleats with ovine delight.”
