Editing Lamb and mutton (section)

{{Short description|Meat of domestic sheep}}
{{Redirect|Mutton|goat meat, which is what 'mutton' primarily refers to in South Asia and the Caribbean|goat meat||Mutton (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
[[File:Lamb meat (1).jpg|thumb|right|Lamb]]
[[File:Mutton chop.jpg|thumb|right|Mutton]]
'''Lamb and mutton''', collectively '''sheep meat''' (or sheepmeat) is one of the most common meats around the world, taken from the [[domestic sheep]], ''Ovis aries'', and generally divided into '''lamb''', from sheep in their first year, '''hogget''', from sheep in their second, and '''mutton''', from older sheep. Generally, "hogget" and "sheep meat" are not used by consumers outside Norway, New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland, and Australia. Hogget has become more common in England, particularly in the North (Lancashire and Yorkshire) often in association with rare breed and organic farming.

In [[South Asian cuisine|South Asian]] and [[Caribbean cuisine|Caribbean]] cuisine, "mutton" often means [[goat meat]].<ref name="oed">''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 3rd edition, June 2003, [https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124371 ''s.v.'', definition 1b</ref><ref name=HT>{{cite news|title=Whose goat is it anyway?|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch-stories/whose-goat-is-it-anyway/article1-809563.aspx|access-date=15 May 2015|newspaper=Hindustan Times |date=11 February 2012}}</ref><ref>Charmaine O'Brien, ''The Penguin Food Guide to India'', section "The Commons", under "Mutton", {{isbn|9780143414568}}</ref><ref>Madhur Jaffrey, ''An Invitation to Indian Cooking'', {{isbn|0375712119}}, p. 49</ref><ref>Janet Groene, Gordon Groene, ''U.S. Caribbean Guide'', 1998, {{isbn|1883323878}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=vh3eancwP-YC&q=goat%20mutton p. 81]</ref> At various times and places, "mutton" or "goat mutton" has occasionally been used to mean goat meat.<ref name="oed"/>

Lamb is the most expensive of the three types, and in recent decades, sheep meat has increasingly only been retailed as "lamb", sometimes stretching the accepted distinctions given above. The stronger-tasting mutton is now hard to find in many areas, despite the efforts of the [[Mutton Renaissance Campaign]] in the UK. In Australia, the term '''prime lamb''' is often used to refer to lambs raised for meat.<ref>[http://www.abare.gov.au/publications_html/livestock/livestock_00/lamb.pdf Australian Prime Lamb Industry, 2000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110413052016/http://www.abare.gov.au/publications_html/livestock/livestock_00/lamb.pdf |date=13 April 2011 }}</ref> Other languages, such as [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[Italian language|Italian]], make similar or even more detailed distinctions among sheep meats by age and sometimes by sex and diet—for example, ''[[lechazo]]'' in Spanish refers to meat from milk-fed (unweaned) lambs.