Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation smoked mutton

Went to a buck sale this Thursday.


They served a lunch at the sale....10 bucks a plate.


It was, as near as I could tell......a smoked, pulled mutton/lamb.


I realize that smoked mutton is a popular form of BBQ on the east coast somewhere.


Anyone do a low and slow BBQ on these types of critters?


I have some shoulders that would seem perfect.

Mutton is very popular here. As a matter of fact, the area an hour or so north of me, Owensboro KY, is known as the mutton BBQ capital of the world. At least that's what they claim. It's cooked here just like the pork, low and slow. Good mutton is good, although I don't like it as well as I do pork or beef. As a matter of fact, mutton BBQ is the only way I'll eat a sheep. Tried lamb chops once, and lasted about 3 bites.
https://youtu.be/dX1eyEBOm5s

My mom used to serve lamb chops. I have never had mutton that I am aware of. Never was overly fond of lamb chops.

We have been making a lot of fig and blueberry preserves this summer. My wife was experimenting with ruby red grapefruit in the blueberry and it came out amazing. She played a little more with grapefruit and other citrus in the figs.

I have been pondered using it as a baste for a venison roast... and possibly rock fish or shark also. Not exactly sure why but they seems to go together in my mind.

I'd be glad to mail somebody a half pint if they want to try it themselves.

i never heard of it. must be a regional thing down in Ky. does smoking take out the gamey taste?

If someone told me I had to buy mutton in the next hour or die,
I would have to buy and butcher a sheep.

Never seen it for sale anywhere.

I just braised two small lamb shoulders.

Fantastic pull apart meat with great flavor.

Will have to smoke them low and slow, that sounds like another perfect application.

I'll take lamb over any other domestic meat every time.

Enjoy it all folks, I grew up eating some lamb. I've never heard a good thing about mutton.

I've eaten mutton that was very good, and had little, if any, of the "gamey" taste. But, I've also had it that was so bad, I couldn't eat it. IMO, it takes a very good cook to make it where it will compare with pork BBQ. By the way, I'm referring to meat that's cooked low and slow, over a wood fired pit, not that stuff they cook in an oven, and call pulled pork.

Have to agree. Ex girlfriend was a vet. She got all the lambs the breeders didn’t want.
Too much lamb is frozen Down Under and stays frozen a long time. Too long.

Lamb chops over a hot fire. Maybe a minute and a half to 2 minutes.
Fat carmalizes.......oh I can eat a pile of them.

Phillips’s......LA.....inventor of the French dip. You can a bunch of different meats. Lamb and Blue cheese on a crusty roll........

Well, this thread inspired me. Have a bone in shoulder roast over mesquite right now. I'm sure I'll have a pic or two later on.

Ate a lot of mutton in my younger days...if the mutton is on pasture, it is darn good. If it's right off sagebrush country rangeland, it's hard to be in the same house where it's cooking, but my Mom used to soak it in lemon juice and crushed dry rosemary, which knocks the wild rank flavor down a bunch.

Alright!


I wish there was a better way to describe what we like to eat.

Its not really mutton......sort of.

Its not really lamb either.


Its more of a combo. Usually eating a yearling ewe that did not breed. She is then finished on grass.....and maybe a little grain.

As we speak about meat from a sheep are we differentiating properly between LAMB and mutton.
There can be a significant difference on the plate/palate.

Someone from England told me that the US has the best lamb. He claimed that in the UK, it was all mutton even if called lamb. Same with many other countries.

I don't know if that's true or not, but I do like lamb. Don't recall eating mutton or hogget, but I don't know how strict the labelling requirements are. May have eaten mutton when I thought it was lamb.

I grew up eating sheep of all ages. Leg of Lamb is my favorite but I like it all. Good fatty mutton makes the best Tikka Masala ever, great kababs too. Indian and middle eastern recipes work well w/ mutton.


mike r

We prefer hogget.

I love quality Rack of Lamb or Grilled Lamb Chops.
I had mutton and hated it as a kid. When I was about 20 I had Barbecued Mutton in Henderson, Ky. It was great!
I would love try good BBQ Mutton again.......

I love quality Rack of Lamb or Grilled Lamb Chops.
I had mutton and hated it as a kid. When I was about 20 I had Barbecued Mutton in Henderson, Ky. It was great!
I would love try good BBQ Mutton again.......

my bro peddled a bike across the gobi desert ate nuttin but mutton the whole way

Agree that mutton vs lamb is a variable. We buy a half or whole lamb every spring. I don't know that I have access to moutton or hogget.




Regardless, I've smoked countless pork shoulders. Why have I never applied the same technique to lamb shoulder? No, that's a real question. This was out of this world.

Good man!

Man, that looks awesome.

My dad, who is 71, says that when he was a kid, lamb was not readily available for sale. Only just mutton. Now everything in the store is called lamb.

He also said squab was somewhat popular.

It will be absolutely awesome Jim & shoulders are perfect !

This is my favourite recipes for lamb/hogget/mutton shoulder - low n slow !



2nd choice - https://www.cbc.ca/life/jamieoliver/recipes/save-with-jamie-mothership-sunday-roast-lamb-1.5302956

Dats da bomb .com !

I have barbequed a lamb leg. It was good. I have never seen mutton for sale around here. Guy at work brought some Barbados sheep out and barbequed it it was really good.

What is a mutton cross between a sheep and a goat?

To be honest, I had no clue the difference between mutton and lamb, I thought they were the same thing. Not many sheep around these parts. I've had one or the other two times that I can think of, once pulled, and once a chop, wasn't fond of either, but don't know the age of the animal that showed up on my plate.

https://triedandsupplied.com/saucydressings/difference-mutton-hogget-lamb/

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.”

well i like lamb think i'll stop there

I fished the big catfish tournament in Owensboro, Ky a couple years running called the "Monsters on the Ohio. We were given discounts at a place called Moonlite BBQ I think.
First and last time for mutton. 10 guys (5 teams) had no idea what it was. Nobody went back for 2nds. Have to grow up on the stuff I guess.

You'll can have my share.

I always thought that mutton was England's entry in the Lutefisk/Haggis war.

Its most likely hogget, not true mutton.

Here's some lamb ribs I smoked early this summer;

Love it big Jim. Some of the best eatin I’ve had are the feral sheep down in Hawaii. Black Hawaiian rams, very good table fare

There are getting to be a good many sheep around here,
maybe lambs go somewhere to be butchered, I don't know many who eat it.
Too expensive.

Seems th e biggest market for sheep,
is people who want sheep. Then those who want more.
And kids for the fair.


Just thought, some Arab bought an old family meat/butcher shop.
Just do goats and sheep. They must ship to the cities, not many
of their customers here.

Often laugh as I drive by.
Do they have any idea of the thousands of hogs that have
made their way through that place.