Americans don't eat a lot of lamb or mutton at all do they? I once had a shepherd's pie in the US that was made with beef! Presumably because they weren't able to source any lamb at all.
Americans don't eat a lot of lamb or mutton at all do they?
Not really. Lamb and mutton are generally expensive meats and can be more difficult to find since the major chains tend not to carry them.
I once had a shepherd's pie in the US that was made with beef!
I didn't realize it was suppposed to have lamb until I was older - I grew up thinking it was a beef meal.
Presumably because they weren't able to source any lamb at all.
This rings true. I grew up eating a lot of quasi-traditional syrian food, both from my grandmother (1st generation in the US) and at church (Eastern Orthodox with a good amount of the service in arabic, and some folks that didn't speak english). Traditionally, these were made with lamb, but I had always eaten them with beef because that was what was available/affordable and folks got used to it.
American shepherd’s pie tends to comprise ground beef, corn, and mashed potatoes, sometimes with the addition of other veggies (peas, carrots) and cheese. Using lamb would generally be considered unusual.
Lamb & mutton aren’t very popular in the US. In my experience, people who are used to beef expect lamb to be more or less like beef—and since beef definitely should not taste like lamb, they end up thinking lamb has an “off” taste and dismiss it without letting it stand on its own merits.
Thankfully here around San Francisco there are some butchers where you can source good lamb, and the ethnic cuisines include enough lamb that local Westerners are perhaps a bit more accustomed to it.
American shepherd’s pie tends to comprise ground beef, corn, and mashed potatoes, sometimes with the addition of other veggies (peas, carrots) and cheese. Using lamb would generally be considered unusual.
That's what I was going to say. Shepherds pie is called shepherds pie because a shepherd is a sheep herder. If it's made with beef, as you say, it's cottage pie. Those crazy yankees :-)
Speaking about names, I still don't understand why Americans insist on calling main dishes as Entrées. An entrée is a starter, it's based on the verb entrer which is to enter. Drives me crazy...
Because the main dish makes the big entrance. I believe French cuisine used to use the same meaning and it diverged when people stopped always having a roast as well as an entrée.
When they used it as that meaning, the next dish was called the "relevé" which was a larger dish that replaced the entrée. So, the entrée wasn't the actual main dish.
That's fascinating. I would expect Americans to call a beef version of a shepherd's pie a cowboy pie. Like, what do they think the word shepherd means in this context?
When I think of cowboy food, I think of stews and other things that can be easily made in one pot over the fire, honestly. Or fire-cooked meats.
Like, what do they think the word shepherd means in this context?
Nothing. I've always thought it was just a weird name for it, honestly. Shepherd nearly always brings up images of a man with his sheep - or maybe goats, if I'm stretching it. More often, I think folks don't give it a second thought nor consider its origin.
Why do you think a shepherd is protecting sheep in the first place? Just out of compassion for them? A shepherd protects them in order to be able to farm their wool and their lambs.
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Americans don't eat a lot of lamb or mutton at all do they? I once had a shepherd's pie in the US that was made with beef! Presumably because they weren't able to source any lamb at all.
Not really. Lamb and mutton are generally expensive meats and can be more difficult to find since the major chains tend not to carry them.
I once had a shepherd's pie in the US that was made with beef!
I didn't realize it was suppposed to have lamb until I was older - I grew up thinking it was a beef meal.
Presumably because they weren't able to source any lamb at all.
This rings true. I grew up eating a lot of quasi-traditional syrian food, both from my grandmother (1st generation in the US) and at church (Eastern Orthodox with a good amount of the service in arabic, and some folks that didn't speak english). Traditionally, these were made with lamb, but I had always eaten them with beef because that was what was available/affordable and folks got used to it.
American shepherd’s pie tends to comprise ground beef, corn, and mashed potatoes, sometimes with the addition of other veggies (peas, carrots) and cheese. Using lamb would generally be considered unusual.
Lamb & mutton aren’t very popular in the US. In my experience, people who are used to beef expect lamb to be more or less like beef—and since beef definitely should not taste like lamb, they end up thinking lamb has an “off” taste and dismiss it without letting it stand on its own merits.
Thankfully here around San Francisco there are some butchers where you can source good lamb, and the ethnic cuisines include enough lamb that local Westerners are perhaps a bit more accustomed to it.
But that's a cottage pie then.
That's what I was going to say. Shepherds pie is called shepherds pie because a shepherd is a sheep herder. If it's made with beef, as you say, it's cottage pie. Those crazy yankees :-)
Speaking about names, I still don't understand why Americans insist on calling main dishes as Entrées. An entrée is a starter, it's based on the verb entrer which is to enter. Drives me crazy...
Because the main dish makes the big entrance. I believe French cuisine used to use the same meaning and it diverged when people stopped always having a roast as well as an entrée.
When they used it as that meaning, the next dish was called the "relevé" which was a larger dish that replaced the entrée. So, the entrée wasn't the actual main dish.
It may be, but folks tend not to call it that.
That's fascinating. I would expect Americans to call a beef version of a shepherd's pie a cowboy pie. Like, what do they think the word shepherd means in this context?
Yeah, as a British person I never thought I'd have to be indignant about my national cuisine being so misunderstood.
Cowboy pie sounds too much like cow pie for my liking. That probably has something to do with it never becoming a term.
Ha ha. Cow pie. Straight out of Desperate Dan. Should it have horns and a tail coming out of it? :-)
What would be wrong with cow pie? I would have thought beef pie would be very popular in the US?
a "cow pie" is cow droppings - manure.
When I think of cowboy food, I think of stews and other things that can be easily made in one pot over the fire, honestly. Or fire-cooked meats.
Like, what do they think the word shepherd means in this context?
Nothing. I've always thought it was just a weird name for it, honestly. Shepherd nearly always brings up images of a man with his sheep - or maybe goats, if I'm stretching it. More often, I think folks don't give it a second thought nor consider its origin.
Well, a shepherd protects sheep from danger, not hunts them. Makes sense to me that he'd eat beef -- he doesn't care about cows, after all.
Why do you think a shepherd is protecting sheep in the first place? Just out of compassion for them? A shepherd protects them in order to be able to farm their wool and their lambs.
Interesting theological implications for the 23rd Psalm in that. Perhaps that explains the obesity epidemic -- Jehovah is going to eat us!
Lamb is not nearly as common as chicken, pork, beef or even turkey, but it is available--total production at the same order of magnitude as duck.
Mutton and goat are extremely rare.
"Mutton and goat are extremely rare."
Having eaten both I say "good!"
Growing up(Toronto area of Canada) we always just called cottage pie shepherds pie.
And in Quebec, pâté chinois. Although that one really makes no sense -- there's nothing at all like it in Chinese cuisine!