I am an Indian living in Canada now but did my undergrad down south. I never saw mutton anywhere- I was at a public uni in FL and transferred to Cornell and have travelled all over the country, I never saw any mutton-related foods. Why is it ignored by Americans? I know it is not a religious thing because Christians in Asian countries eat mutton so is there any other reason?

Although, my parents live in CA and they have had mutton sliders there but that is the only thing I’ve heard about mutton.

40 comments

  1. I don’t recall whether it was World War ii, or Vietnam, but I do remember reading about this. The soldiers were given mutton so often when they were at war that when they all came home they raised a whole generation not eating it.

  2. We use mutton and lamb as a holiday roast in my family. As for around the year consumption, maybe a farmer or a meat industry person has a more knowledgeable take, but I usually see mutton as a roast, standing rib roast, or chops. Cubed mutton isn’t a common sight though. It’s a good meat when we cook it, but the recipes I make around it usually have the lamb as the centerpiece, and for meals when the meat is incorporated into the dish (which are our more common dinners), we tend to use chicken or pork (chorizo is one of the finest things known to man)

  4. It’s called lamb. There is no legal age requirements to sell sheep meat under a particular name like in Britain but it’s called lamb because that’s the best way to sell it. That said, practically it comes from younger animals who could likely be called lamb under any standard.

  5. Probably because mutton has a bit of a barnyard flavor to it (caused by lanolin)

    And sheep are notoriously hard to farm because they are so susceptible to disease and parasites.

    Cows are much more low maintenance.

  7. In terms of water it’sworse then almost any other animal, in terms of calories/ meat pigs are 1, then chicken, then fish, then cows, then lamb. Mutton is expensive to make and if you have the land and industry there isn’t a reason to mass produce it over beef or hogs.

  8. Around here it’s VERY popular to have pulled mutton barbecue.

    I don’t like mutton at all, because it tastes like eating a wool coat. I do, however, very much like lamb. Like, love. But you know, that’s a whole different topic.

    /*desperately trying to talk the family into my favorite Greek restaurant for my birthday in a couple weeks

  9. If you’re talking about goat, there’s plenty of ethnic restaurants that have it. I am not really fond of it. But as you said I don’t see it in mainstream grocery stores, and I’m not sure where these restaurants are getting it from (probably independent or smaller stores I am not visiting). If you’re talking about lamb, that is not as popular but is still found in grocery stores. I have recently bought lamb several times.

  10. A mix of harsh competition with beef cattle for grazing land (like… The shooting each other kind) and a big problem with sheep mange killed the mutton industry in the later half of the 1800s and it’s been more of a specialty thing ever since. Every once in awhile it tries to recover, but not many Americans have a taste for it since the market was never well developed which keeps it from developing and… You get the cycle.

    Goat is a lot easier to find outside of few dishes that are staples at high end restaurants.

  11. I’ve only had it in an Indian restaurant here. It was very tender, must’ve been slow cooked, but the flavor was just ok. I guess people just prefer the flavor of beef, pork, chicken, lamb and turkey.

  14. Just FYI. From what I understand, in India, mutton is goat, while in the US, it’s sheep. I’ve only seen goat in Indian or Caribbean restaurants. Sheep/lamb is available in many places.

    Which meat did you mean ?

  15. The only mutton (assuming you mean goat) I’ve ever seen is eaten is by the Greek community, they love spit roasting an entire goat at a get-together. There’s a lot of Greek ancestry in NE Ohio.

    Can’t say I’ve seen it on a menu anywhere though

  16. Do you mean goat or mature sheep?

    Lamb is fairly common where I live; I don’t think I’ve ever seen mature sheep meat for sale. We prepare lamb occasionally at home. Goat is becoming increasingly common, and I’ve had it several times at local Mexican and Burundian restaurants. I like it when it’s been stewed or braised and well-seasoned.

  17. I love lamb, but buy it rarely based on price (mutton or not).
    We look for deals at Aldi, where they differentiate.

  19. I’ve never even tasted it and based on reviews i have no desire to try. The only sheep I’ve seen near me are for wool, not eating.

  20. I’ve only had it once made by a friend from Nepal. A curried mutton on the barbeque and really want to have it again, but never buy it probably because I never see it. That was so good.

  23. If a food is not very available then it is not going to be popular.

    I am 49 years old and have never seen mutton in stores or on a restaurant menu. I see some places online where you can order mutton and it is super expensive compared to other meats. So I am not eating it because it is not available at my local grocery store and does not fit my budget.

  24. Mutton/lamb has a place in Virginia Barbecue, but outside of that it’s not very popular simply due to the fact that cattle, pig, and chicken farms is what took hold in this natiin.

  25. Lamb won the war here over sheep. We would rather eat them young. Even that is rarer than chicken or beef. I love it though, but only have it once in a while.

    However, salad’s got nuthin on this mutton! 😂

  27. I think it’s a lot of the factors mentioned already, and then those meet the fact that most of us don’t have religious or other dietary restrictions that prevent us from eating the more commonly available meats that we have.

  28. The meat of both sheep and goats is relatively expensive in the US– they are raised in far smaller numbers than swine, foul, and cattle. In my area I can buy boneless pork loin for about $2/pound and boneless chicken breasts for the same. To get goat I’d have to go to a specialty store and it would be $8-10 per pound. Lamb is even more expensive, mostly imported from New Zealand.

    We eat goat and lamb in our house, but since it generally costs 4-5x as much as other options it’s something we have only rarely, usually when we’re making Indian or Ethiopian food at home. More likely we’ll order either in restaurants.

  29. My maternal grandmother spoke of having nothing BUT mutton as a schoolgirl. It was cheap, and she rapidly got tired of it. Once she was grown and had her own family, mutton wasn’t a thing that was going to be seen at her table. Pretty certain she wasn’t the only person that felt that way!

  31. American’s produce a lot of our animal protein through factory farming, which keeps the price down. It’s not really possible to produce mutton this way, so the price is significantly more expensive than beef, pork, and chicken. As a result to the extent mutton is eaten in the US it’s mostly seen as a meal for a special event, usually a holiday. I see mutton advertised in stores mostly during Easter.

  32. I imagine sheep tastes like goat meat- just like it smells (which I detest). I would try mutton, but i don’t think it would replace the “normal” American diet.

  33. It’s pretty popular where I live. I’m close to the Navajo and Southern Ute tribal reservations and they are very big on Mutton, but you’re right, in general across the US it is not common.

  34. Because we have higher flavor quality protein sources (in most people’s opinions) and we choose to eat that.

  35. It’s not UNHEARD OF uncommon, if you eat at European-cuisine themed restaurants. For example, I was at Spago in Los Angeles, and they had it on the menu. When I was a kid living in Connecticut lamb chops were pretty common at the butcher shop in the town we lived in. That was small town New England though – people who live in many of those towns tend to be descended from Europeans who ate sheep.

    In California, the immigrant mix is completely different, and most people didn’t grow up in homes where sheep was an animal they ate. Just as an example, I was married to an Asian American woman who had lamb for the first time in her 20s when she was with me and she thought it smelled and tasted strange and no she didn’t want another bite but thank you. If you’re a grocery store, and that’s the reaction of many of your customers you view mutton as a low-demand, high-cost specialty item.

  36. Mutton means sheep in the US. 90% of the answers you’re getting are answering as if you’ve asked about sheep. Might want to edit your original post to clarify if you mean goats.

  37. There are a lot of reasons why it’s not as common that have been mentioned already, but I haven’t seen anyone mention that in the US the word mutton itself is generally avoided, we have sort of shifted to just calling all sheep meat lamb no matter how old it is

  40. ABCDesi, here (Los Angeles born, parents from Kolkata).

    **Demand:** Mutton is more popular in South Asia than most other places because many Hindus will not eat meat from cows, while many Muslims will not eat meat from pigs. If you’re a herder, then herding either cows or pigs will cut down your customer base dramatically, but *goats* will not. Even when you do have flat grazing land, herding a smaller animal costs more over herding a bigger one; but due to the cultural forces acting so strongly on the economy of this type of food production, that trade off is worth it in India in a way that it isn’t in most other countries – ones where you can safely assume the whole meat-eating population will consume at least one of those larger (i.e. more cost efficient animals)…if not both.

    I specified the “flat” grazing land because…

    **Supply:** I used “herders” for simplicity above, but you don’t really herd pigs; you *do* herd *cows*. Now, if you are feeding goats directly (i.e. animal feeds), they’ll generally eat less than cows. In addition, because they are smaller and more maneuverable and can climb really easily, they’re also the more ideal in mountainous, rocky, or uneven terrain; cows suck in those terrains. *However*, if you’ve got flat terrain and the feeding of your animals is very cheap or effectively free, then cows are far more cost effective. Most pasturing and grazing land in the U.S. is flat terrain, so in most places where grazing animals can be and are pastured, cows are far more cost-efficient compared to goats.

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