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Mutton has a slightly "gamey" flavor, is there a way to prep it before cooking which reduces this "gamey" flavour?

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Is it mutton or lamb? They are not the same. – SamAlterman Jul 26 '10 at 3:10

4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

  1. Most of the gamey-ness comes from the fat. Unlike the pork or beef fat, mutton fat has a strong odor and is considered to be inedible by most people. You want to trim off as much of it as possible. http://chestofbooks.com/health/nutrition/Medicinal-Meals/Mutton-Fat.html

  2. It also depends on whether the goat was grain-fed or grass-fed. The latter, although more natural, tend to produce meat that has a strong smell.

  3. As for cooking mutton, I've found the only satisfactory way of getting rid of the smell is to make a curry out of it. There are many good Indian mutton curry recipes on the web.

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I'm pretty sure mutton is meat from a sheep, not from a goat. – nohat Aug 5 '10 at 19:29
Mutton is another name for goat meat in certain regions of the world. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_meat Mutton is also used for sheep. – Gilead Aug 6 '10 at 1:18
According to your Wikipedia link, mutton is a colloquial term for (adult) sheep meat in those areas, but is noted to technically refer to just sheep. – Christopher Cashell Apr 4 '12 at 20:37
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While true that the flavor comes from the fat, which depends on the animal's diet, I don't think "most people" consider mutton fat to be inedible; this attitude is probably limited to Americans or people used to the bland taste of grain fed animals. In support of this, your own link at "chestofbooks.com" describes ways of preparing mutton fat and makes no mention of trimming it off. – J. Winchester Apr 5 '12 at 23:59
up vote 4 down vote

The flavor will vary greatly depending on the cut of meat and the preparation.

  • Different cuts (eg: chops and legs) taste very differently from one another (legs and tougher meat taste more gamey)
  • Ground lamb has almost no gamey flavor
  • Well done meat will taste less gamey than medium (Edit: regarding "done-ness" this how it tastes to me. Since answering, I've discussed this with someone else who says the opposite is their experience)
  • Cooking with a lot of vegetables or a flavorful starch will by contrast cut down on the strong flavor more than a bland starch. A bland starch will result in highlighting the strong gamey taste
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up vote 3 down vote

Are you talking about lamb in general or mutton?

Mutton does have a strong flavour - this can be reduced by removing the pink skin and trimming off superfluous fat.

You can also complement the flavour by adding things like garlic, olive oil, mint, wine, rosemary and thyme, pepper, dry mustard and curry powder.

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up vote 0 down vote

The best way to reduce the gamey flavor of mutton is to use lamb instead of mutton. In most parts of the world, lamb is meat from a sheep that is less than 1-2 years old. Mutton is meat from an adult sheep.

Lamb meat tends to be more tender and less gamey than meat from an older sheep.

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