Love lamb chops.

Yum! We love lamb at our house!

I’m a fan!!!!

I'll fourth that! That is the favorite cut at my house.

We grow a lot of market lamb in Iowa, but ti doesn't stay here....the best lamb comes from Australia or NewZealand.

When I first came here and found I couldn't buy lamb chops or leg or lamb riblets or lambs hank in the store, I found a farmer who af=greed to sell me a lamb and send it to the packing plant. I kept waiting and finally when iw ent to pick it up fould it was 6 months old. seriously muttoney tasting...hogget. I complained to the farmer that it was too old and he said no meat on it before that. Obviously unacquainted with lamb lollypops!

Hogget, when we can get it, is by far our favourite meat. I wouldn't be complaining. I'd be ordering more. Younger lamb is in plentiful supply. We always buy fresh, local and organic. We are surrounded by sheep farms. However, a lot of it is exported to the European mainland and replaced by cheaper imports from New Zealand. It's more expensive than imported frozen but infinitely better tasting. UK farmers complain that imported lamb is cheaper than their product because of the huge flocks and lower welfare standards abroad.

The New Zesland and Ausralian lamb we get is fresh, but certainly not cheap, which is to be expected considering the transport costs. Colorado lamb is what we call ”a thing” but I don't care for it. I think importing lamb from the antipodes is ridiculous, but since they paved over the grazing lands to make more money off of human activity, that's what we get. There is one outfit that's localish that raises the most perfectly conscientiously cared for animals, but the high rent district shows in the pricing, and requires big family/small restaurant size orders. The stores have the imports for a reason... I've had Australian lamb in the past which was only fair, but the lambchops the other night were awesome!

This thread inspired me to make lamb chops for some friends, as a sort of side treat. The rib chops were about 3/4” to 1” thick after I cut them apart so each chop had one rib bone . Very simple - rubbed with oil and salt, let them sit around for a couple hours, then seared each side on max heat until sort of golden brown, not dark or crusty, which left the interior about medium. Served the ”lambpops” in a big bowl, every one just grabbed bone ends. Yum. Worked out to $25 for 10 lamb lollipops or $2.50 ea, which seems ok for how delicious

they were.

The main dish was a chicken and sausage paella, I got the soccarat right but needed a bit more flavor, rather bland.

What does mutton taste like? Stronger, more gamey?

Describing flavors... Hard. I'm guessing the mutton I've had was what our British friends call hogget, which is a yearling (past 1 year but under 2, but I'm thinking the ”mutton” was 15-20 months). The flesh is less tender, and the flavor is more lamby. Baby lamb actually tastes milky sweet. As they get bigger the particular lamb flavor intensifies. As it gets older and tougher, the flavor intensifies more and gets much stronger, but it’s the same flavor, just moreso. As it gets even older, it becomes kind of goaty in intensity and texture, though still the sheep flavor (but stinky). I'm fine below stinky, it's the tough I dislike, not the flavor. Think of some of the classic flavor pairings—mint, rosemary, mustard, garlic. The farther you get down the road toward mutton, the more these are used to tame the funk. I like my lamb young and tender and these plant flavors are too strong for that. According to Wikipedia, most American lamb is hogget, nowadays, which explains my distaste for Colorado. Good luck finding true mutton, though. Try a small specialty farm. Be aware that in some places in the world, goat is called mutton (or so I've read).

I always watch for smaller shanks, etc. it's more likely to be younger; I don't care much for the taste as it gets older. I ate too much mutton growing up - disliked it then and dislike it even more now. Lamb I love and do a pretty good job making those lollypops and even lambshank. Those lollypops are what my clan wants whenever we get together and that about breaks the bank... so to speak.

Mutton makes awesome curry…

Collen, I'm sure you're right! My mother used to make a lamb curry with stew meat, when she bought meat by the side, but I can see how the deeper flavor of mutton would work well, and stewing would take away any toughness.

So...confession time. My meat drawer is ”air chilled” temperature. Just warm enough not to form ice crystals, so properly wrapped meat lasts longer. I had some little (not little ittle, but barely larger than wee) lamb chops left. Plans for them kept getting overridden. I cooked them for breakfast! Lamb chops (and fruit) are AWESOME for breakfast.