Lamb is one of those meats that people usually love or hate, but the reason for the dislike is often something that can actually be fixed. Pretty easily, it turns out. The culprit is the gamey flavor that some meats have, causing palates that aren’t used to it to pass it up for a more familiar, milder tasting meat like beef or pork.
It’s popular in cuisines around the world, like Greek, French, Turkish, Indian, Persian, and more, and it has been for centuries. In fact, it’s been raised in various cultures for at least 9,000 years. But lamb can sometimes be gamey, much like wild meats such as venison, duck, and rabbit.
The simplest way to handle this flavor, which can be very off-putting for someone who isn’t used to it, is to marinate the meat. You have myriad options that create numerous flavor profiles — the great thing about marinades is that you can go to town with your ingredients, creating something amazingly different every time or finding a favorite and sticking to it, perfecting it more and more each time you make it. As long as your marinade hits all the right notes with a proper balance of three parts fat, two parts acid, and one part seasoning, your lamb won’t leave you yearning for another entrée because of the gamey flavor.
Beyond the cure, look for the source
Lamb is well worth taking the time to familiarize yourself with. When it isn’t gamey, it has a tenderness accompanied by a rich flavor that sets it apart. If you want to try to discover the taste without marinating the meat, be sure to give it a heavy fat trimming before you cook it. Lamb is known to have a type of fatty acid called branched-chain fatty acid, which the human palate is particularly sensitive to. The accumulation of this fat is often blamed for the flavor, so removing the excess will give you a smoother taste.
If you want to ensure that you’re getting lamb that won’t need excessive fat-trimming, shop for young lamb. As lambs age, their bodies accumulate more fat — thus, more fat to trim when you cook it. The best way to ensure this is by selecting lamb labeled as such, instead of lamb labeled as mutton, which is the older version of the same animal.
When you’ve got a nice tender, flavorful lamb, sans gamey flavor, the sky is the limit. You can grill it, add it to a curry, or roast it for a beautiful holiday meal or Sunday night family dinner. And the leftovers … oh the leftovers! Not only can you use leftover lamb roast to make a hearty stew stock, but there are lamb tacos, homemade lamb gyros, and savory meat pastries that can show you everything that lamb has to offer.
