Eating lamb or goat meat

neandermagnon

what the heck is a gyro?

It's a sandwich like Shawarma or doner Kebab. If you don't know what any of these are, you are missing out. They layer meat in a big metal skewer and rotate it close to a fire and as the outside of the meat cooks they slice it and serve it in a pita (type of bread) with salads and sauces.

I love shawarma

SarahSmilesCA

I love both lamb and goat if prepared right and usually that means almost all the fat scrapped off it and it slow cooked with strong spices...the fat is just too strong for my American senses...LOL

With that said I LOVE Greek, Lebanese and Indian food,. Their spices really add flavor. I get so tired of beef and chicken is ickky to me, though I choke it down because it is a main protein source in the US....really boring really ickky some days...

neandermagnon

My husband ate sheep's brains at a Saudi wedding

sheep is a staple here in the gulf. For parties you can get a kabsa made with a whole lamb

This is the biggest kabsa I've ever seen, it looks like they cooked the entire flock

Railr0aderTony

My favorite T-shirt:

ME that is who.

AleciaG724

I AM vegetarian, but non-judgemental! Just posted the picture to get a rise out of you guys - meant in good fun :-)

neandermagnon

I AM vegetarian, but non-judgemental! Just posted the picture to get a rise out of you guys - meant in good fun :-)

that's okay I thought it was funny.

neandermagnon

As I Brit, I like lamb the traditional roast way, with gravy and mint sauce and roast veggies

vtmoon

I did some consulting work for a farm that was looking into expanding their lamb meat production a couple of years ago. We wondered the same thing and set out to find why demand wasn't high. We determined it was a bunch of reasons that combined to keep sales low for lamb vs the big 3. I'll list some of those reason in a somewhat chronological flow.

First from a historic point, cattle came first cause you can move herds for miles relatively easy vs the others. Pigs were easy to raise in frontier farms cause they can eat anything. Sheep and chickens were not as available.

1900s lamb was actually readily available and some what cheap in urban areas and big cities, but it was associated with poor folks and immigrants. So eating beef meant you are well off, and if you can afford chicken you are rich.

The World Wars (1&2) actually played a factor too. The GIs had to eat a lot of army cooked lamb which pretty much ruined it for those two generations of soldiers. So when they came back home they pretty much forbade it from being cooked in their homes. So that caused a lot of people growing up without tasting it and most Americans were not adventurous with food.

Also due to the lack of familiarity with lamb led to the industry having a weak representation once lobbying and all that became the way of the land.

Another kick to the lamb industry happened in the 80s when people started becoming more health conscious. No one wanted the delicious fatty lamb, they shifted towards the lean meat like chicken. American lamb industry tried raising lean lamb which needles to say defeats the purpose.

Americans LOVE cold drinks be it soda or water. That tends to be a problem with the way Americans eat, we chow down fast and like to wash our food down with these cold beverages. The fat from lamb tend to congeal at low temperatures which leaves a weird feeling in your throat.

Also the whole baby animal thing is frowned upon here in the US, just like veal.

There are a couple more issues that the industry have but can't remember them now. As far as goat I just think our environment allowed us to raise bigger animals that are better economically (we like things big).

icmuse

I eat lamb 1-2x a week. Love it!

I live in the states, but I am originally from Europe. A lot of our American friends do not eat lamb,.... just the ones of Greek origin

Gramps251

I'm in the US and eat lamb about once a month. Love it. (lamb chops on the grill make me happy)

susannamarie

I love lamb and goat, but they are so expensive that I rarely buy them.

Sqeekyjojo

That's interesting. All meat seems pretty expensive in the UK, but the halal butchers are great, and are far more reasonably priced than the supermarkets, so it actually saves me money to eat lamb, goat and chicken. And they provide lots of really lean cuts. I also like that I can go to a butcher and just buy one small piece that they'll cut even thinner so I can just chuck it in a pan and it's cooked really quickly.

If I had to describe the taste of goat meat, I'd say it's got a more delicate but more complex flavour than lamb, and the texture is better, because the grain of the meat is finer.

I love reindeer, although that's harder to get hold of, and my favourite burgers are ostrich, which are similar to turkey, but with a less harsh flavour than the intensively farmed turkey we tend to get over here. I wasn't that impressed by kangaroo, though. Or springbok. Venison is great, too.

Chicken tends to be a bit of letdown, it doesn't really taste of much, not like Bresse chickens which we can sometimes get imported from France. Guineafowl has more flavour than the average supermarket chicken, but is even more expensive. Duck is great, though. Rabbit is alright, but I think that was more associated with being poor during WWII than any other meat. And then they became children's pets, so it fell out of favour. Things like grouse, partridge and pheasant are more of a statement of affluence than anything, though. I've never tried quail, but quail eggs are lovely. I personally don't eat hare, because they're rare in some areas and I wouldn't like them to become endangered due to a thriving meat trade.

Eating squirrel or pigeon isn't something done much here - most of us associate pigeon with the rancid feral ones that populate our cities and towns, eating old takeouts from the bins and crapping on your head as you walk under bridges. And squirrels are the cool little dudes you feed peanuts to in the park.


What I would say is that everyone who isn't vegetarian should think about trying different meats when they get the opportunity. I certainly wouldn't have found out I liked any of these on the basis of the food I was given as a child. That consisted of chicken once a week and maybe turkey or beef a couple of times a year. I don't like processed meat (other than salami and good crispy bacon), so I was pretty much veggie as a kid and young adult.


Same goes for fish, too. Most people only eat a selection from cod, haddock, tuna and salmon. And nowdays, pollock in cheaper processed meals. Plus shrimp/prawns. But there are so many different ones easily available outside the supermarket.


Just try something different.

SweetestLibby

I'm American and I eat lamb and goat. Horribly expensive so I don't eat it often. I also eat reindeer (Caribou!) but it's also horrible expensive where I leave. Bison is also great...also really expensive! My wallet seems to stop me from eating them on a regualr basis rather than being American.