Out With the Lamb

The Queen served the Trumps lamb last week (Lipinsky)

Why do Americans favor beef, chicken, and pork over lamb?

As one theory goes, while awaiting deployment to mainland Europe during World War II, US troops were fed mutton — meat from older sheep — and told it was lamb. When they returned home in 1945, the story goes, they refused to touch lamb meat ever again.

I remember that Mom cooked leg of lamb during the '50's and '60's because it was cheaper than beef and, IMHO, tasted pretty good when accompanied by mint jelly. I also remember that Dad hated it for precisely the reason in the article--it reminded him of the horrible, gamey mutton that the Army served to GI's during and after World War II.

It took decades to remove Army mutton from Dad's memory, but he eventually grew to tolerate lamb. However, I don't think he'll be having any on Father's Day.