We Love to Hate Lamb
We tied off our camels on the outskirts of town. Merzouga is a dusty village tucked up against the five hundred foot tall Erg Chebbi Sand Dunes, gateway to the Sahara Desert in the south of Morocco.
We’d stopped in a date orchard to find some relief from the oppressive heat. It was August, and the temperature had climbed to over 110° in the shade. Below the stout palm trees, concrete troughs crisscrossed the ground. The air was cool and moist underneath the canopy. Despite the heat, the water felt ice-cold. Frogs waded among the palm frond shadows.
Refreshed, I entered the middle of town and stumbled into the beating heart of a Berber wedding. Although we were crashing the party, the bride’s family immediately invited us into their compound. Children and shrouded women sat in every free spot on the floor. The bride, a twenty-something girl in a floor length white gown, sat in a corner wearing a colorful headdress that looked like an overturned purse, her eyes hidden in the pink and purple fringe.
The groom and his entourage soon arrived outside the walled home. He too was clad in white robes with a white scarf wrapped around his head, though his eyes were visible. Across his chest was a multicolored sash of reds, blues, green and yellows. A parade of family and friends followed behind, and behind them was a pack of dusty town children. Next to the groom was the best man. Next to him was a large skittish lamb led by a bit of rope seemingly too short for the job.
With the husband-to-be in position in the street, the bride was brought out to meet him. A circle formed, and the entire village pushed in trying to catch a glimpse of the couple, everyone erupting into song and clapping.
The sheep was brought into the middle of the circle and laid on its side. The singing, the heat, and the smells of excited people made it hard for me to concentrate., but I couldn’t take my eyes off the animal. A determined looking middle-aged man grabbed me by the wrist and brought me to kneel with him in front of the animal. I could smell its grassy scent. The groomsman stroked the animal’s throat, and whispering something into its ear. Despite all the commotion around us, the sheep immediately relaxed. It’s breath slowed. A knife was handed to him. A few of the children covered their eyes. The groomsman found his mark, and the crowd erupted with ululations.
That entire animal would go to feed more than 100 celebrants. Not a morsel was wasted. Not one village belly would go hungry that evening, including my own.
Domesticated sheep have been part of the human diet longer than any other farm animal. In fact, some archaeologists say that sheep-raising is the oldest form of commerce, starting in Central Asia some 10,000 years ago.
Today, sheep—or lamb as we commonly refer to it in the grocery store—is still a favorite in the Middle East, Iceland, New Zealand and Australia. At Le Paturage, the butcher shop I visited last summer in Puyricard, France, lamb accounts for almost half of sales.
However, in the US, and even at Electric City Butcher, lamb is not all that popular. More often considered a holiday food, or something for special occasions, the “other red meat” can be intimidating to guests. Some ask, “How do I cook it?” Many more use the “g-word” when its offered to them. “It’s just too gamey.”
But that didn’t used to be the case. America was once home to one of the largest lamb industries in the word.
First smuggled into the Colonies in the 16th and 17th Centuries, lamb expanded west with shocking speed. By the late 19th Century, there were more than 50 million sheep grazing America’s plains and mountainsides, exceeding the human population. US. President Woodrow Wilson even had sheep on the White House lawn to keep the grass neat. With so many GI mouths to feed, production peaked in World War II.
Then, the lamb industry collapsed. Thanks to changing tastes, and foreign imports, the domestic sheep herd shrunk to one-tenth its size, with only six million animals grazing America today.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll explore America’s love/hate relationship with lamb. We’ll learn what mutton really is. I’ll make sure to share my favorite lamb cuts and recipes. And, of course, we’ll talk to Rancher Martin Emigh of Emigh Lamb to learn what makes his 100% grass-fed animals so delicious.
This is my favorite protein. Maybe more surprising to some, it’s my kids’ favorite as well. I hope you’ll join me in learning how this fantastic, sustainable, and versatile protein should become a larger part of the menu you serve to your friends and family at the dinner table. I know what I’ll be eating tonight.