is the word 'mutton' off putting?

[foobar]

Lamb and mutton just needs poncy new names then it'll fly off the shelves.
The words pork and beef both stem from the latin for pig and ox, so you would probably need to find something similar for sheep based on ovis or balans or something like that...

I agree with the earlier poster who mentioned leg steaks - they make sheep meat much more accessible for those who just want a quick meal (and those that can't afford a whole leg). Also diced shoulder. Rolled loins, and rolled loins sliced up into medallions too.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Well you lot are very out of touch! Mutton is actually pretty trendy and has been undergoing quite a renaissance - there is the 'specialist' side , which started over a decade ago http://www.muttonrenaissance.org.uk/. Then the more general 'cull ewe' without the specialist criteria. When we sold freezer boxes - we stopped about 5 years ago - we were selling some mutton as well as lamb because people were asking for it. Some of my customers preferred mutton to lamb (and many preferred hogget to new season lamb). All the top chefs have been extolling the virtues of mutton for several years and have recipes in their books/tv programmes. There are loads of mutton recipes on line along with cooking information. https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/collections/mutton-recipes. https://www.bbc.com/food/mutton
Plenty of restaurants and decent pubs serve mutton dishes, often locally sourced from named farms.

AHDB have mutton recipes on their consumer websites. I have a sheep farmer client who sells to a farm shop and he is selling many of his cull ewes through them as mutton.
We must also remember that the Muslim market is critically important to mutton sales. Muslims eat more sheep meat per head than the average for the rest of the population. (Rest of population 5% of meat is sheep, Muslims 40%) and of that sheep meat, nearly half is mutton for Muslim consumers. (Data from AHDB). If any meat name needs changing I think it's lamb as many younger consumers think of bouncy 2 week old lambs with wiggly tails.

Get with it people!

 

[hendrebc]

Apparently Prince Charles is a fan of mutton and promotes it whenever possible at banquets etc. Most of us don't have that sort of clout (or attend banquets).

Is prince Charles on here?

+1
The TFF collective haven't really thrown up anything that captures the imagination, name -wise.

The sheep industry, from about 3 million clean sheep and about 400,000 culls (government figures from https://assets.publishing.service.g...ile/734094/slaughter-statsnotice-12july18.pdf) generates about £2M in levy money every year.

Assuming the ADHB haven't spent it all on expense accounts and company cars etc, how about we stay with the status quo and get a few posters printed, to display in retail outlets, with pictures of 'killing size' lambs grazing, to try and get consumers to get a more realistic connection with what they are eating?

Something a bit like.....
View attachment 727874 ...just a random pic - I'm sure plenty of members on here have better ones but you get the idea. Plenty of other products are promoted with the image of the countryside, we ought to use it a bit more ourselves to promote our own.

The levy boards won't do anything how long have we waited for now?
Be easy enough for us to club together to start a FB and twitter or whatever page and promote it ourselves. Easy enough to share something and wouldn't cost us a thing. We just need someone who can cook to give us recipes and a good photographer. And then someone who is clever enough to make them into a picture you can share easily. Some facts and figures about grazing ruminants sequestering carbon wouldn't go amiss either. Surely there are farmers or farmers partners/family members somewere that can do those things the recipies thing would be a good shop window for aspiring chefs and butchers too

 

[Paddington]

Is prince Charles on here?

One never knows to whom one may be talking to on these fora.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Is prince Charles on here?

The levy boards won't do anything how long have we waited for now?
Be easy enough for us to club together to start a FB and twitter or whatever page and promote it ourselves. Easy enough to share something and wouldn't cost us a thing. We just need someone who can cook to give us recipes and a good photographer. And then someone who is clever enough to make them into a picture you can share easily. Some facts and figures about grazing ruminants sequestering carbon wouldn't go amiss either. Surely there are farmers or farmers partners/family members somewere that can do those things the recipies thing would be a good shop window for aspiring chefs and butchers too

FFS read my post above. Far better to promote and back existing intiatives rather than reinventing the wheel. We used to supply a few recipes when folks were trying mutton for the first time.

 

[Netherfield]

Well you lot are very out of touch! Mutton is actually pretty trendy and has been undergoing quite a renaissance - there is the 'specialist' side , which started over a decade ago http://www.muttonrenaissance.org.uk/. Then the more general 'cull ewe' without the specialist criteria. When we sold freezer boxes - we stopped about 5 years ago - we were selling some mutton as well as lamb because people were asking for it. Some of my customers preferred mutton to lamb (and many preferred hogget to new season lamb). All the top chefs have been extolling the virtues of mutton for several years and have recipes in their books/tv programmes. There are loads of mutton recipes on line along with cooking information. https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/collections/mutton-recipes. https://www.bbc.com/food/mutton
Plenty of restaurants and decent pubs serve mutton dishes, often locally sourced from named farms.

AHDB have mutton recipes on their consumer websites. I have a sheep farmer client who sells to a farm shop and he is selling many of his cull ewes through them as mutton.
We must also remember that the Muslim market is critically important to mutton sales. Muslims eat more sheep meat per head than the average for the rest of the population. (Rest of population 5% of meat is sheep, Muslims 40%) and of that sheep meat, nearly half is mutton for Muslim consumers. (Data from AHDB). If any meat name needs changing I think it's lamb as many younger consumers think of bouncy 2 week old lambs with wiggly tails.

Get with it people!

I think you'd find around here, if you asked for mutton at a small butchers, the answer would be " I could get you some but you'd have to buy the whole animal".

 

[Princess Pooper]

I think you'd find around here, if you asked for mutton at a small butchers, the answer would be " I could get you some but you'd have to buy the whole animal".

So by it from people who are actually addressing consumer demand. https://tastetraditiondirect.co.uk/product-category/mutton/
butchers are supposed to be marketing product not selling it. If a butcher hasn't got the nouse to think 'OK I have a couple of customers asking for mutton, I'll put a poster up saying I'll be getting some in soon and I'll promote it to generate a few more orders to make it worthwhile' then he doesn't really deserve the trade! That's what we used to do, only by email or phone as we didn't have a physical shop. Most butchers also add value / reduce waste by making cooked pies/casseroles etc to sell so they can always do that.

 

[Netherfield]

Jimmy and Jamie tried to promote Mutton, I believe tried to get supermarkets involved, I've seen nothing about it since, or seen mutton at any supermarket.

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/channel-4s-jamie-oliver-jimmy-14072203

 

[Macsky]

Well you lot are very out of touch! Mutton is actually pretty trendy and has been undergoing quite a renaissance - there is the 'specialist' side , which started over a decade ago http://www.muttonrenaissance.org.uk/. Then the more general 'cull ewe' without the specialist criteria. When we sold freezer boxes - we stopped about 5 years ago - we were selling some mutton as well as lamb because people were asking for it. Some of my customers preferred mutton to lamb (and many preferred hogget to new season lamb). All the top chefs have been extolling the virtues of mutton for several years and have recipes in their books/tv programmes. There are loads of mutton recipes on line along with cooking information. https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/collections/mutton-recipes. https://www.bbc.com/food/mutton
Plenty of restaurants and decent pubs serve mutton dishes, often locally sourced from named farms.

AHDB have mutton recipes on their consumer websites. I have a sheep farmer client who sells to a farm shop and he is selling many of his cull ewes through them as mutton.
We must also remember that the Muslim market is critically important to mutton sales. Muslims eat more sheep meat per head than the average for the rest of the population. (Rest of population 5% of meat is sheep, Muslims 40%) and of that sheep meat, nearly half is mutton for Muslim consumers. (Data from AHDB). If any meat name needs changing I think it's lamb as many younger consumers think of bouncy 2 week old lambs with wiggly tails.

Get with it people!

Not much of a renaissance if after 10 years we are no further forward. Who wants mutton to be trendy? Fashions come and go in minutes, I’d rather it was common!

 

[Netherfield]

Quick survey
Aldi,Lidl, M&S, Ocado, Tesco, Asda - No sign of Mutton at all
Sainsbury's - Mutton Curry
Morrison's - Mutton Curry and Scotch Broth with Mutton.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

"Woolly Chicken"

 

[Paddington]

Mutton is popular with the Asian community, particularly at a feast time such as Eid after Ramadan, so what do Hindus call it ? Google translation comes up with mutton also floozy
Might get misinterpreted asking for floozy in a restaurant.

 

[Cowcalf]

think if you worry about the taste and price more than the name you may get somewhere

 

[d-wales]

Interesting thread; very easy to think of lots of bad names... old lamb, dead sheep, sheep meat; or maybe changing 'lamb' to 'sheep veal'. But very difficult to think of a decent name-change for mutton that doesn't sound ridiculous, maybe import a word?

In the few languages I know there is no joy, so I have tried a few in Google Translate - caution needed - and there isn't a 'stand out' one. Korean is amusing 'yang gogi' and Esperanto possible 'kavaliro' despite sounding like a vegetable, but not much good really.

I guess a decent rebranding and ad' campaign would be the best bet.

I thought 'mutton' was a French word originally??

 

[CharcoalWally]

I thought 'mutton' was a French word originally??

Le mouton = sheep, as my French teachers drummed into me way back when .

 

[Norfolk Hill Farmer]

Well you lot are very out of touch! Mutton is actually pretty trendy and has been undergoing quite a renaissance - there is the 'specialist' side , which started over a decade ago http://www.muttonrenaissance.org.uk/. Then the more general 'cull ewe' without the specialist criteria. When we sold freezer boxes - we stopped about 5 years ago - we were selling some mutton as well as lamb because people were asking for it. Some of my customers preferred mutton to lamb (and many preferred hogget to new season lamb). All the top chefs have been extolling the virtues of mutton for several years and have recipes in their books/tv programmes. There are loads of mutton recipes on line along with cooking information. https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/collections/mutton-recipes. https://www.bbc.com/food/mutton
Plenty of restaurants and decent pubs serve mutton dishes, often locally sourced from named farms.

AHDB have mutton recipes on their consumer websites. I have a sheep farmer client who sells to a farm shop and he is selling many of his cull ewes through them as mutton.
We must also remember that the Muslim market is critically important to mutton sales. Muslims eat more sheep meat per head than the average for the rest of the population. (Rest of population 5% of meat is sheep, Muslims 40%) and of that sheep meat, nearly half is mutton for Muslim consumers. (Data from AHDB). If any meat name needs changing I think it's lamb as many younger consumers think of bouncy 2 week old lambs with wiggly tails.

Get with it people!

www.muttonrenaissance.org.uk has been around for 10 years or so, wouldn't say it is exactly pulling up trees. Your figures prove there is much scope for getting the rest of the population to eat mutton but the truth is , at this point of time the overwhelming mayority of the population who are not "foodies " or from a certain ethnic background, don't think to buy mutton , and it's not readily available even if they wanted to.

 

[yellowbelly]

how about some kinda buzzword abbreviation....ummm....something like Mutton Is Lovely Flavour......MILF for short

Google translation comes up with mutton also floozy

I wanna tell you a story..............

..........So, these two guys, @spin cycle and @Paddington, walk into a restaurant. One asks for a Milf, the other orders a Floozy.............


..........they both get chucked out - sorry guys, it's bound to end badly. Back to the drawing board

 

[hendrebc]

FFS read my post above. Far better to promote and back existing intiatives rather than reinventing the wheel. We used to supply a few recipes when folks were trying mutton for the first time.

no need to swear.
We typed those at the same time and you have a good point but you can't exactly say those things have been successful because I've only heard of one of them and haven't seen much about it.
I bet we could do a better job ourselves if we all did it and do it a damn sight cheaper too.

 

[cowboysupper]

A friends dad owns a butchers shop and he’ll
tell you it’s nothing to do with the name of the product but largely do to with the price.

That being said, if I were to embark on a rebranding campaign all I think I’d do is stick ‘free range’ in front of lamb. It is the original free range product and should be promoted as such.

 

[yellowbelly]

That being said, if I were to embark on a rebranding campaign all I think I’d do is stick ‘free range’ in front of lamb. It is the original free range product and should be promoted as such.

Very good point