lamb

[mom61508]

Ok so tonight I made kind of a shepards pie with ground lamb and I'm so bummed because the lamb is gamey tasting I can barley eat it I'm trying to get a variety of meat into our diet we mainly do ground beef and some sort of chicken. Is there a way make it less gamey to is it just an acquired taste?

[snguyen]

Sometimes it depends on the age, breed and diet of the lamb. The older the lamb, the more mutton-like the meat in a lot of cases. I recommend the Katahdin (sp.?) breed if you can find a farmer or retailer who specifies, grass-fed if you can help it. It's a very mild tasting meat, my family loves it.

[cristeen]

Definitely your source plays a role. But also there are certain things you can do to minimize even the gamiest tasting meat. Acid and herbs are the two main ones... lemon juice is great for cutting the gamey flavor, and garlic, onion, rosemary or fresh oregano (not dried, really) are great at masking what the lemon juice didn't. For a large cut I'll make a marinade of lemon juice, olive oil, lots of fresh garlic and rosemary. Let it marinate in that a few hours and it really helps it not be gamey.

I also like using pomegranate molasses instead of lemon juice... it's tart/sweet and does a great job at masking, and it matches with lamb really well. I make a marinade of pom molasses and fresh OJ. You can add garlic if you like, but I rarely do.

[Razmatazz]

hmm thats strange, for me lamb is almost tasteless...its why i prefer beef (although, i prefer lamb organ meats as they are not so gamey)
perhaps its your particular source of lamb, or the cut?
Maybe try another farm, or try lamb leg steaks..

[mom61508]

I got mine form us wellness meats so I figured it should be really good but Thanks for the ideas. I've always liked lamb chops but had lamb leg one time and really couldn't handle that one. Thanks for in the input