Lamb Aged:

Baa. Baa Black sheep have you any wool, yes sir, yes sir three bags full. One for the master, one for the dame and one for the little boy, who lives down the lane.

The sheep here offer its wool in this story, but the sheep or lamb has much to offer than meets the eye of the storytelling.

Lamb in grocery stores is 5-12 months old sheep. Unlike the mutton of old, the flavor is quite mild, especially if it's domestically raised lamb. Most locally raised lamb is grain-fed, while imported lamb tend to graze on grasses, producing a slightly stronger-flavored meat when cooking lamb, but both are excellent.

If you can, choose young lamb, which is tender, with a mild flavor. Look for firm, finely grained pale-to dark-pink meat. The layer of fat should be smooth and white, and any cut bone should be porous, moist, and red.

A sheep is domestic animal and has been called a lamb, hoggert and mutton.

The lamb is an animal under one year of age. In this age group you would have the baby lamb. A milk-fed lamb between 6-8 weeks old. Spring lamb, a milk fed lamb, usually 3-5 months old. Yearling lamb milk fed lamb between 12-24 months. When a lamb reaches the average weight of about 65 pounds his meat is so tender that it appears more often on the dinner tables

Hogget is between 12-24 months and only have one set of incisor or one set of teeth for gnawing and chewing. The Mutton is also between 12-24 months and it has two incisor teeth for gnawing and chewing.

The Hoggert have a stronger flavour than lamb because they contain a higher concentration of species-characteristic fatty acids. This meat is tougher than the lamb and more suited for the casserole styling cooking or dish.

Mutton is an old season lamb after 7 months of aged and still dependent on their mothers for milk. Thin strips of fatty mutton can be cut into a substitute for bacon called macon.

Lamb is often sorted into three kinds of meat. The forequarter includes the neck, shoulder, front legs, and the ribs up to the shoulder blade. The hindquarter includes the rear legs and hip. The loin includes the ribs between the two. Leg of lamb is a whole leg. It is best cooked slowly using either a moist method of stewing or barbecuing using a smoker.

Most people have never tried lamb. And many that have try lamb say they do not like the taste at all. Just remember that the taste has a local mild taste it is a grain fed animal. One that eats grass in a pasture has that wild stronger taste. "baa-baa."