Why Is Lamb so Expensive and Elusive?

[melkor]

You can find lamb and goat at almost any Halal butcher.  There are Halal butchers in nearly every city in the country.

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Sounds rather dogmatic to me. I haven't seen a halal butcher anywhere here in the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia or the Florida west coast.

I wonder if there is a an association that might tell us how many there really are in the country and where.

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Check your phone book.

Al Hamrah Halal Meat & Groceries

895 Indian Trail Lilburn Road Northwest, Lilburn, GA

(770) 381-2006

HolyLand International Grocery and Halal Meat

200 North Pleasantburg Drive, Greenville, SC

(864) 248-4841

Al Ummah Halal Meat Bazaar

Near Route 1, Telegraph & Pohick Rd Intersection,

7361 N Lockport Place, Lorton, VA

(571) 642-0000

Lebanese Butcher & Restaurant

113 E Annandale Rd, Falls Church, VA

(703) 533-2903

Amana Food Market

Tampa, FL 33617

(813) 914-8410

Al-Aqsa Grocery

10805 N 56th St

Tampa, FL 33617

(813) 987-2039

Apna Bazar

2361 E Fowler Ave

Tampa, FL 33612

(813) 903-1774

[Rebecca263]

I have to admit, lamb is THE major reason that we end up visiting the kosher butcher, as opposed to our regular ShopRite or Wegman's, for meat. The chains have a decent selection of chicken and turkey, and some beef and duck, too. But lamb is much easier to get at a kosher butcher, in any way you like! At a chain store, you are relegated to the basics, chops and shanks, with a rare soupcon of stew meat. Ground lamb is NEVER available.

[jsmeeker]

I'll have to check out the Kosher butchers near me. Of course, they are inside large chain supermarkets, but maybe they will have a better selection than the other stores (or at least just some shoulder). I'll just have to remember to NOT go on a Saturday.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

Lamb is easy to find where I live. Whole Foods carries some, and a smaller local chain (Lunardi's) does as well.

I don't know prices, because I'm really not a big fan of lamb.

[lancastermike]

I was contemplating buying some lamb shoulder( low, low price of .99lb) for the Senior's.  I thought I'd better check with the person in charge and was told NO, the Senior's no likey lamb.

I discussed this on the senior dining thread, and it was suggested that when they think lamb, they're really thinking mutton.

Anyway, long story short, I ended up buying 5 of them and hauling them on Via Rail to KerryBeal and Anna N.  They enjoyed them!!

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And I'm eating the last one of those shoulders tonight in a nice Irish Stew.

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I made lamb stew on Sunday at the request of my wife. I went looking for shoulder to stew but the best I could come up with was a semi-boneless leg. All these legs of lamb must come from lamb with no other parts. Leg, either boneless or semi-boneless is all I ever see, excepting those little, and very pricey, chops

[Pam R]

I sell lots of shoulders (and chops, racks, stew, shanks, ground & ribs). The legs aren't kosher. So my theory is that all of the shoulders are going to kosher stores and the legs are going to non-kosher markets. That is, the ones that aren't going to halal markets.

[Darcie B]

I had a friend who used to raise sheep and each spring he'd invite us out for a lamb dinner. Those were probably some of the worst meals I have ever eaten, so I thought for a long time that I didn't like lamb. As it turns out, my friend was just a terrible cook.

I wonder if those who had a bad "gamy" lamb/mutton experience also suffered at the hands of a poor cook. Most people here in the U.S. have little experience with lamb and are likely to not cook it well if they try it at all, thereby reinforcing the negative connotations that seem to go around.

Lamb is easy to find here; there is a large Middle Eastern population. It's at Kroger and Walmart, and occasionally other places. We can get legs, chops, ground and frequently, though not always, shoulder. AFAIK it's not kosher, but I don't look for that so it may be.

[Jennifer Brizzi]

I adore lamb and am forever bemoaning that it's not more popular, to drive up the demand and availability and the prices down. Fortunately my spouse is just as mad about it as I am or I'd have to order it every single time I go out to dinner. We eat so much lamb that a lamb-loathing friend used to stop by so often when we were having it she thought we ate it seven nights a week!

I don't buy rib chops much as they are too expensive for me, as are whole legs usually. Most often I buy neck meat on the bone to make into Indian, Middle Eastern, Spanish or French stews, or I get round bone shoulder chops (which are usually pretty cheap and not hard to find where I live) to marinate in garlic, cumin, marjoram, mint, red wine and then grill.

As I found out when I started this thread a couple years back, there are lots of other lamb lovers out there, so we just have to spread the word.

[Marlene]

Irish Stew. Moan.

But, Kerry, you're Canadian, and citizens of the former British Empire (Indians, Pakistanis, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians --dare I say Irish?) are lamb loving people. Med folk too. But it seems as if, here in the Heartland, the taste for lamb -- even it's existence -- is marginal.

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True, and even here in my little town, lamb is always available. Rack of lamb tonight for dinner.

Irish Stew. Moan.

But, Kerry, you're Canadian, and citizens of the former British Empire (Indians, Pakistanis, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians --dare I say Irish?) are lamb loving people. Med folk too. But it seems as if, here in the Heartland, the taste for lamb -- even it's existence -- is marginal.

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Maggie, I feel your pain - even as I drizzle a little mint sauce on my leftovers. Hubby might as well live in the heartland however - not a lamb eater.

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Mine either Kerry, so the lad and I always have our lambfest when hubby won't be home for dinner.

[jsmeeker]

I was at a local Whole Foods over the weekend. They actually had some whole shoulder in the case, along with the typical rack and chops (both "regular" and the less expensive blade chops). I think they had some shanks, too. Also, some already cut "stew meat".

So, I've found a source for shoulder. I'll have to buy some when I have time to make a stew.

[TongoRad]

I adore lamb and am forever bemoaning that it's not more popular, to drive up the demand and availability and the prices down. Fortunately my spouse is just as mad about it as I am or I'd have to order it every single time I go out to dinner. We eat so much lamb that a lamb-loathing friend used to stop by so often when we were having it she thought we ate it seven nights a week!

I don't buy rib chops much as they are too expensive for me, as are whole legs usually. Most often I buy neck meat on the bone to make into Indian,  Middle Eastern, Spanish or French stews, or I get round bone shoulder chops (which are usually pretty cheap and not hard to find where I live) to marinate in garlic, cumin, marjoram, mint, red wine and then grill.

As I found out when I started this thread a couple years back, there are lots of other lamb lovers out there, so we just have to spread the word.

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Yeah- I guess that, fortunately for us, lamb is neither expensive (if you get it on sale) nor elusive in this area (I swear it is everywhere I look. Then again, I'm mostly looking in Indian, Carribean and schwarma places ). Just this past weekend I was clearing out the freezer and came across two family packs of lamb shoulder chops that we got for under $2/pound. They made a really nice braise, but I've also grilled them successfully in the past.

[maggiethecat]

For Immediate Release:

We found lamb shoulder for 1.99 a pound, and bought a six pound beauty. Tomorrow: Navarin Printanier. Later: merguez. And, of course, the bones and scraps will go to Scotch Broth

Jackpot.

[David Ross]

I also got lucky scoring some lamb shoulder this weekend-of all places at my local Walmart. I came across some lamb shoulder chops that were labeled "country style." I've only seen pork "country style" ribs so I was surprised to see lamb cut this way. I bought a pack of 6 chops at $2.99 a lb.-really a steal considering the final dish tasted just as good as a grilled rack of lamb that would have cost me much more.

Here's a photo of the final dish, Braised "Country-Style" Lamb Shoulder Chops served with Polenta with Smoked Gouda. Enjoy.

[maggiethecat]

David: That lamb looks fab and the photo is pure food porn.

My daughter made Jacques Pepin's lamb and white bean stew in the pressure cooker from "Fast Food My Way" a few days ago. She said it was amazing, and was pretty chuffed with herself. She served it over couscous and it reminded her of a similar stew she'd eat at the corner mosque in Paris. Forty minutes, start to tender finish.

[Milt]

Last year I read an article in the alumni magazine of Fort Hays State University. It stated that per capita consumption of lamb in the United States is .7 pounds annually. My son's comment was that we are covering a lot of non-lamb eaters because we eat considerably more than that. Several years ago, that son fixed lamb chops for a Valentine's dinner for his girl friend and was surprised to find out that she had never had lamb before. She became a convert that evening.

I was raised in the high desert plateau area of northwestern New Mexico. That is sheep country. One year my father bought a calf, a pig, and two lambs at the annual 4-H livestock sale. Mutton stew is a popular dish among the Navajo where it is a traditional breakfast menu item. We have never had trouble finding lamb in our part of Georgia - but it does tend to be expensive. Our Easter dinner was a boneless leg of lamb from Costco. The last of the lamb was used to make some excellent chili.

Our consumption of chicken has increased considerably in recent years and our red meat consumption has decreased. If you leave ground meat out of the equation, I am confident that our family eats more lamb than beef - even though I have never kept track of such numbers.

[Priscilla]

Lamb yesterday, a great cut from the top of the leg that the butcher shop is calling "Saratoga Chops" for some reason, but I asked them to not cut mine into using-the-term-loosely chops and so I had three gorgeous pieces of boneless nicely-trimmed lamb each about the rough shape and thickness of a hearty trade-size paperback, say the Peter Guralnick Last Train to Memphis that is No. 1 for takeoff on my stack. It's the best part of the leg, if you've ever boned a leg, a task I keep swearing off and then returning to due to circumstance, however if one must the picture-punctuated directions in one of the volumes of Craig Claiborne's Favorites has been a godsend 800 times.

We slathered them with a paste made of rosemary, parsley, little bit of mint, judicious amt. garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and let 'em sit around all afternoon and then later grilled and served, sliced, with nice red potatoes from the potato guy at the farmer's market smashed with creme fraiche, butter, salt, pepper, and Clarissa squash sliced and grilled and drizzled with aged Balsamic and olive oil, salt, pepper. Very nice Garnacha that the guy at the wine store recommended.