[431]
]MUTTON, GRASS LAMB AND HOUSE LAMB
Relevés and Entrées.
From the culinary standpoint, the ovine species supplies three kinds of meat, viz:—
Mutton—properly so-called when the meat is derived from the adult animal.
Lamb—the young, weaned sheep, not yet fully grown, the meat of which is the more highly esteemed the younger the animal is.
House Lamb—the sheep’s unweaned young that has not yet grazed.
The “Pauillac” lamb, which is imported from France, is the most excellent example of the last kind. Good house lambs are also killed in England; they are quite equal to Pauillac lamb, but their season is short. As regards ordinary English mutton and lamb, however, the delicacy and quality of these meats are unrivalled.
But for its greater delicacy and tenderness, grass lamb, which corresponds with what the French call “agneau de pré-salé” is scarcely distinguishable from mutton. The recipes suited to it are the same as those given for mutton; and all that is necessary is to allow for differences of quality in calculating the time of cooking.
House lamb, the white flesh of which is quite different, admits of some of the mutton recipes; but it is generally prepared after special formulæ, the details of which I shall give hereafter.
When served roasted, hot or cold, mutton and grass and house lamb are always accompanied by mint sauce, the recipe for which I gave under No. [136].