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[Micaylah]

At 10:06 AM 5/26/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Actually, there seem to be very few period recipes for lamb, although 
>there are many for mutton, and quite a few for kid and calf.  I would 
>surmise that this is because adult sheep of both genders are productive, 
>in a way that goats and cattle are not.  Anyone who is wise in medieval 
>animal husbandry wish to comment?
>Brighid



Actually, I would look at it in a different text. 

The number of kid and calf recipes would resultin the preponderous number
of people keeping a single adult cow or goat. Remember that these are
milking animals, and as such, need to calve or kid regularly to insure the
production of that milk. If the milk animal doesn't have the correct
internal hormone level, the milk dries up. In period, before the scientific
intervention of drugs, the standard way for these animals to get that
hormone level was to have a baby that needed suckling. NO animal will give
milk until that infant is born (or those hormones are made present
artificially).

Combine that with the basic necessity that marks a limit on the number of
animals an individuals acreage could support, if the milk was what was
desired, why keep the infant? It would only endanger the future life of the
mother by consuming the food supply of the parent after it is done
suckling. Note that most veal and kid is defined by an age at which sucking
has ended.

Sheep, on the other hand, are kept in large numbers, require large tracts
of grazing and penning land, and lambs go fairly quickly from suckling to
grazing. We do NOT seek the milk from sheep, but rather the wool. I do not
know of any instance where a single sheep was kept for its wool production.
A single cow or goat kept for its milk production is still common today.
And that one animal would be kept until it was to old to calve again. Then
a single new animal would be purchased.

In sheep farming, the herd is culled at least once possibly several times a
year, depending on breed and wool harvest, with up to half the flock being
sold. Prices for wool and for mutton will also work towards deciding which
gets sold, the inside or the outside. This culling usually takes place
after the spring clipping, significantly after the lambing season.
Generally, it is the older sheep which demonstrate a loss in wool
production or may not make it thru the next season, followed by other less
productive or healthy animals. The lambs are kept to replace these animals.

Then again, compared to cows and goats, how much faster does a sheep reach
maturity? This might also make significant difference in what gets sold when.

IOW, calves and kids are killed because they have already done their task
and most people had a parent. Lambsgot slaughtered only because there is a
small market for lamb, and were kept by a relative few. Finding period lamb
recipes would therefore, IMO, be proportionally harder to find. 

One also might look at what the definition of "lamb" is. I recently helped
cook a feast in which "leg of LAMB" was served. I expected to be dealing
with a (max.) 5-6 pound bone in piece of meat. These averaged 10-12 pounds
each. Sounds more like a Mutton Shank to me. But several butchers from
different places quoted the same weight expectancy. Still tasted delicious
(and NO, there was no mint- sauce, seasoning, or jelly.)

Franz
Calontir






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