[Sca-cooks] Lamb (was Re: lent, wine, indulgences, de Nola)

[Terry Decker]

Sheep are the general animal.  Rams are adult males.  Ewes are adult
females.  Lambs are young sheep of either sex.  Mutton is the meat of the
sheep.

According to the OED, lamb first appears in written English in 725.  That
would make the appearance Old English  (Anglo-Saxon), a derivative of Old
Teutonic.  The meaning is "young of the sheep."  A cursory examination of
the OED doesn't show any reference in cooking.

Mutton's earliest reference in the OED is 1290 and is in reference to food,
but not in a cookbook.  Since Old French dates from the 9th to the 16th
Century, earlier references are probably in Latin rather than English.
Earliest meaning is "flesh of the sheep, used as food."  The common usage is
"flesh of a mature sheep."  The OED does not precisely define the common
usage in the 13th Century.

Sheep are "ruminant animals of the genus Ovis."  The earliest written
appearance in English is 825.  It is Old English derived from Old Teutonic,
where the origin is believed to be prehistoric.

I would point out that lamb and sheep are both of Anglo-Saxon derivation,
while mutton is of Norman-French derivation.  The cookbooks we have are
written for noble households and date from after 1100, when Middle English
came into common use.  Middle English is Anglo-Norman and the use of the
word mutton rather than lamb or sheep is probably an artifact of the Norman
French of the ruling class.  It may be that mutton did not have a clearly
defined age implication at that time or it may be that lambs were too
valuable to waste as food.

Bear





>
>I know that lamb and mutton are different, but how much difference was
>there in period.  The word "mutton" obviously comes from French
>(Webster.com says: Middle English /motoun/, from Old French /moton/ ram
>- Date: 13th century), whereas "lamb" comes from German (Date: before
>12th century).
>
>The word "lamb" however doesn't appear at all in Forme of Curye, Liber
>cure cocorum, A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye, or Two Fifteenth-Century
>Cookery-Books.  FoC uses only the term sheep, LCC and PNBoC use mutton
>exclusively, and except for two occurrences ("pownche of a chepe" and
>"panche of a shepe") TFCCB uses mutton everywhere else.
>
>Ok, so I guess what I'm wondering is if all the recipes for mutton in
>LCC, PNBoC, and TFCCB were intended for sheep over a year(?) old, or
>did they just not make the distinction?
>
>Also, how was the word "lamb" used in period English?  If it was in use
>in the 12th century (as asserted by webster.com) then why doesn't it
>show up in these English cookbooks up through the 16th century?
>
>Could someone with access to the OED please look up "lamb", "mutton",
>and "sheep" and see what it has to say on the matter.
>
>- Doc (who is just going to have to get an OED of his own)