HUGH
11-21-2010, 03:08 PM
My information is that many of you folks don't get to taste good sheep meat very often but for those who do, what kind of sauce would you expect to have with prime roast lamb?
There seems to be a sort of brain-washing in the UK which dictates that you MUST have mint sauce or mint jelly with your roast lamb or you will die. We live in an area which is reputed to have the best sheep meat in the world (maybe, maybe not) but for the last 12 years or so we have found locally reared lamb which has never been frozen has such a good taste it would be criminal to adulterate it like that, like today for example. Accompanied by roast potatoes and some of our home-grown vegetables it was perfect. The gravy was made with meat juice and some of the vegetable water. I particularly like the taste of the crispy skin and, in spite of the fat contained therein, I haven't managed to gain any weight for years.
If we do have any roast sheep meat which has perhaps been frozen and lost some taste, a little redcurrant jelly usually suffices and, anyway, a Merlot or Cabernat Sauvignon is consumed to wash it all down with.
(My assumption that sheep-meat is not easy to find in the USA was reinforced when I collected a Californian colleague from Heathrow Airport and we had to find overnight accomodation prior to working on a project the next day. On the hotel menu was "Crown of Lamb" and he practically bit my arm off in his haste to order it. Not the cut I would have chosen and it wasn't very good when it arrived but he greedily eyed up my plate until I'd finished.)
There's the other thing in some parts of the USA which can also be prevalent in French cuisine also about having to have elaborate sauces with everything. During stay in a Holiday Inn in Michigan I couldn't even have my breakfast cornflakes without being interrogated as to why I didn't want at least two kinds of fruit with them. At least the bacon and "easy-over" eggs were offered without embelishments......
There seems to be a sort of brain-washing in the UK which dictates that you MUST have mint sauce or mint jelly with your roast lamb or you will die. We live in an area which is reputed to have the best sheep meat in the world (maybe, maybe not) but for the last 12 years or so we have found locally reared lamb which has never been frozen has such a good taste it would be criminal to adulterate it like that, like today for example. Accompanied by roast potatoes and some of our home-grown vegetables it was perfect. The gravy was made with meat juice and some of the vegetable water. I particularly like the taste of the crispy skin and, in spite of the fat contained therein, I haven't managed to gain any weight for years.
If we do have any roast sheep meat which has perhaps been frozen and lost some taste, a little redcurrant jelly usually suffices and, anyway, a Merlot or Cabernat Sauvignon is consumed to wash it all down with.
(My assumption that sheep-meat is not easy to find in the USA was reinforced when I collected a Californian colleague from Heathrow Airport and we had to find overnight accomodation prior to working on a project the next day. On the hotel menu was "Crown of Lamb" and he practically bit my arm off in his haste to order it. Not the cut I would have chosen and it wasn't very good when it arrived but he greedily eyed up my plate until I'd finished.)
There's the other thing in some parts of the USA which can also be prevalent in French cuisine also about having to have elaborate sauces with everything. During stay in a Holiday Inn in Michigan I couldn't even have my breakfast cornflakes without being interrogated as to why I didn't want at least two kinds of fruit with them. At least the bacon and "easy-over" eggs were offered without embelishments......