“hothouse” lamb for younger animals,
“spring” and “Easter” lamb for the rest
(though production is no longer truly
seasonal). New Zealand lamb is pasture-fed
but slaughtered at four months, younger than
most American lamb, and remains mild. In
France, older lambs (mouton) and young
female sheep (brebis) are aged for a week or
more after slaughter, and develop an
especially rich flavor.
Pigs Pigs are descendents of the Eurasian wild
boar, Sus scrofa. If beef has been the most
esteemed of meats in Europe and the
Americas, pork has fed far more people, both
there and in the rest of the world: in China the
word for “pork” is also the generic word for
“meat.” The pig has the virtues of being a
relatively small, voracious omnivore that
grows rapidly and bears large litters. Its
indiscriminate appetite means that it can turn
otherwise useless scraps into meat, but that