[Sca-cooks] Flavors accompanying lamb or mutton

[Suey]

Stefan quoted:
> "And yes, rosemary and mint are the most common and tasty accompanying
> spices for lamb (as long as you stay away from most nasty commercial  
> mint jellies) but many other flavors go very well with it- juniper
> berries, as an example.
>
> Phlip"
    No necessarily. The use of herbs when preparing baby lamb or mutton 
in England and Iberia has been governed by what the mother ewe eats or 
the lamb eats to bring out the flavor of the milk or the meat. In 
England, for example, sheep grazing in valleys where mint is abundant 
can be cooked in water in which mint has been boiled. Those bred in the 
mountains are seasoned with wild thyme. Mutton from the marshlands are 
prepared with salt grass from estuaries and seaweed. Mutton from the 
orchards of the Midlands were and still are served with red-currant 
jelly and fruits sauces. The Hispano-Arabs seemed to have had more 
variety of spice and herb combinations such as salt, pepper, coriander, 
saffron, cinnamon, lavender, oil and other spices on hand or Chinese 
cinnamon, lavender, cloves, saffron and pepper.
    Today the problem is that we don't know where lamb comes from that 
we buy in the supermarket. Even it is says it is from New Zealand it 
does not give the area. As a result when not making couscous, I cheat by 
assuming the lamb was raised in a mint filled valley as I like mint so much!
    Thank you all for your nice mint sauce/jelly recipes. We shall try 
the sauce with apple vinegar today as we have it that on hand.
Suey