[wallyward]

hi
 
have a 2 year old hampshire X ewe that didnt hold to service last year so want to send her to the butcher in next month or so.
 
Having never put away something this old before whats the best way to ask the butcher to prepare her?
 
we always slow cook our joints anyway including the legs so not an issue but what cuts of mutton are best. we are a small tribe (2 aldults & 2 toddlers ) so normally get legs & shoulders halved anyway. not keen on chops but would rack of mutton be any good?
 
she must be over 70Kg so am i right in expecting her to kill out at about 30KG or so?
 
lastly, to date our kids have not clocked on to the fact that the lambs seem to dissapear and that we eat a lot of lamb on sundays! but they have names for all the ewes and i think will ask a lot of difficult questions, how have you overcome this in the past?
 
thanks in advance for any input.
 
regards

[Foobar]

I would do joints for slow roasting only, no chops - make a rack of the loin, and dice the shoulders for stews.  Tell your abattoir/butcher to hang it for two weeks before cutting.

[wallyward]

hi
 
many thanks for that, do you think not worth keeping shoulders for slow roasting? we normally have them halved and cook at low temp for circa 3 1/2 hours.

[Blacksheep]

You could probably have joints split into 1/3s, and then have some joints, some diced and some minced.
A good butcher should really be able to advise you on the quality of the meat once he starts to butcher it, and how best to have it butchered.
Not sure what advice to give re the toddlers though, but hopefully if they enjoyed the lamb they will like this too and are young enough to accept it.
Mind you I seem to remember my mum telling me that as a toddler she couldn't tell me or my brother that we were eating lamb as otherwise we wouldn't eat it, and we didn't keep our own sheep!

[Anke]

All we do with our Shetland mutton is the following: Keep the legs entire and on the bone for a really, really good slow roast ( using the Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall method) and you could keep those for a big family do/Xmas joint (but watch the size of your oven). Then shoulder cubed (for curries and stews) and the rest minced (my children would eat Shepherd's pie every day of the week if they could). Any excess fat is rendered and used for soapmaking.

[graham-j]

Hi,how much dose it cost to have a full grown sheep slaughtered and hung for two weeks.I have only taken in Hoggs up to now.They are slaughtered,dressed and picked up within a few days.They normally charge about £11 + stamps.

Graham.