Food Blog

Mutton is in the news again. A few months ago Frank Bruni pulled the wool off our eyes and revealed that the Legendary Keen’s Steakhouse in NY isn’t really giving you mutton when you order the Legendary Mutton Chop. They’re giving you lamb.

Now The Prince of Wales spoke at a dinner to launch the Mutton Renaissance Club - “A renaissance of mutton won’t change the world but it just might, might make the difference between [farmers’] survival and disappearance and that, ladies and gentlemen, is enough for me”. I can find no such renaissance here in the US.

I cooked mutton once. In New Zealand. I stunk up my flat because I thought I could just pan fry it like a pork chop. My Maori flatmate came in and cursed me as a stupid pakeha. Not too long after that he made some sort of paua and seaweed stew that stunk up the entire block. I asked him if it was any good and he said “No, but it does make you fart”.

Anyway, I did have a mutton stew in a restaurant down there that wasn’t bad, but it was indeniably mutton, strong as a wet sheep.