[Sca-cooks] suet vs. fat

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Mirianna <voztemp at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Cool, thanks! I kind of wondered if what she said was true, seeing as the uses
>for the tail is still there. Is it possible to get these in the US? Or is it
>all in Asia?

Despite my focus on cuisines of the medieval Muslim world, i am not 
generally fond of the flavor of sheep meat (although i do cook and 
eat it with some regularity) and, as far as i can tell, the fat also 
has a sheepy smell. So i have never asked my local halal butchers if 
they have sheep tail fat available.

I live in California, and combining the relatively large South Asian, 
Persian, and Levantine populations here with the fact that i see 
sheep out in fields with frequency when in long drives, i imagine it 
is possible that sheep fat is available, and it is within the realm 
of possibility that some breed of fat tail sheep may be raised here, 
if only in small numbers and for a small community. I would imagine 
that any area with Southwest and South Asian populations and 
merchants catering to them might have sheep fat for sale, and 
possibly even from fat tail sheep

Additionally, after reading many entries on the Oklahoma State 
University Animal Science site -- fascinating info on all sorts of 
domesticated farm-type animals -- many of these special breeds are 
disappearing under the weight of standardization and other 20th and 
21st c. pressures.
-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita