SC - Lamb recipes

[Philippa Alderton]

Ras skrev:

>Animals that were raised for food in the middle ages grew slower than >the
>hybrids we have today. For instance, veal and sheep were about 18 >months
old
>when slaughtered. There is much information on this subject in English
>Food
>by Jane Grigson.

Possibly many of the wethers were kept until that age, or thereabouts, but
you're talking a traditional spring food, which was apparently often served
around Easter for Christians, or Passover for the Jews. Since both Passover
and Easter fall in March or April, and since most lambs are born in February
or March (I'm using modern dates here, since the timing doesn't change in
relation to the Spring Equinox, regardless of manmade artificial dates),
you're looking at either a roughly two month old lamb, or  a 14 month old
lamb.

I question the validity of Grigson's statements in a sense larger than mere
England- I'm also wondering what changes the climactic differences in the
Mideast may have made on usual breeding times and lamb production times,
compared with the climate in Europe.

I'm not sure that hybridization would change the growth rate of lambs or
young animals significantly. When hybridization is done, it's usually for
improved wool or meat quality, or, in the case of the South American sheep
which tend to have multiple (4-5 at a time) births, for greater fecundity,
or for disease resistance. Animals are not quite as versatile as plants are,
and generally require much longer to make a change in basic development.



Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

"All things are poisons.  It is simply the dose that distinguishes between a
poison and a remedy." -Paracelsus

"Oats -- a grain which in England sustains the horses, and in
Scotland, the men." -- Johnson

"It was pleasant to me to find that 'oats,' the 'food of horses,' were
so much used as the food of the people in Johnson's own town." --
Boswell

"And where will you find such horses, and such men?" -- Anonymous