Why people in the US don't eat mutton

In the UK it was more down to marketing - mutton fell out of favour but lamb remained popular. But it seems different factors were at play in the US

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln served roast mutton at his inaugural dinner. America once had over 50 million sheep. Today, the average American eats just one pound of lamb per year — and mutton? You can't even find it in most grocery stores.

So what happened?

The answer involves bloody range wars between cowboys and shepherds in the Wild West, a World War II feeding disaster that traumatized an entire generation, a chemical invention that destroyed the wool industry overnight, and the most successful meat marketing campaign in history.

This is the story of how America forgot an entire meat.

having lived for a time on the navajo reservation, i am a big fan of mutton. it’s not the only way i feel like the odd man out in american culture! slowly preparing for the eventual introduction of sheep to my home system.

I live in the US and I have eaten Lamb, but not mutton.

The grocery store I shop at has Lamb but no Mutton.

I don't know why mutton is not sold in the US.

Veal used to be a thing though I have not seen it in stores in a long time.  I think this has something to do with Baby Beef.

I'm starting to see more offering of mutton and lamb where I live from farmers but I'm unsure how much business they truly do. I think if someone were to teach HOW to best cook these proteins then maybe there would be wider adoption of the meat.

I plan on getting some lamb to try out, I just know that I am nervous as I have never tried it before!

my mother, who is just as nuts for lamb/mutton/goat as I am, tells me lately it is getting simply too expensive to buy any of these meats in the US, I think it is imported for the most part and recent current events have made that more complicated.

I extracted a summary of the video for those who can't watch (i did not watch, no guarantees about accuracy)

AI summary wrote:
Why don’t we eat mutton in the US?

Economic and Industrial Collapse
Synthetic fibers like nylon and polyester invented in the 1930s-40s destroyed the wool market by offering cheaper, more durable alternatives, causing American sheep population to decline 90% from its 50 million peak in the 1880s to present day.

American mutton consumption collapsed from being as common as beef or pork in the 19th century to just 1 pound per person per year by the 2020s, nearly erasing it from mainstream food supply.

Violent Competition and Political Power

The late 19th century range wars between cattle ranchers and sheep herders in the western US involved ambushes, arson, and murder, with wealthier, politically connected cattlemen securing control of grazing lands and establishing beef's dominance.

Cultural Trauma and Taste Calibration

World War II military served poor quality mutton from old ewes—tough, gamy, and carelessly cooked day after day—creating a generational aversion among traumatized veterans who swore never to eat it again.

The beef industry's grain-fed, feedlot-raised cattle produced mild, consistent flavor that became the engine of American fast food and national identity, while mutton's robust, gamey flavor clashed with American palates calibrated to industrial beef's blandness.

Cultural Preservation in Margins

Immigrant communities in Owensboro, Kentucky, the Navajo Nation, and halal markets in Dearborn, Michigan and Jackson Heights, Queens maintained mutton traditions, untouched by the range wars, military mutton, and beef industry's marketing machine that destroyed mainstream consumption.

I love lamb, but it is quite pricy, around here it always has been more expensive than other meats.
I imagine mutton is more strongly flavored?

I associate lamb with rosemary on the one hand and curry on the other.
I'm  curious how we would use it if it were popular here.
I imagine mutton bacon would be excellent.
Mutton chicharrones?

William Bronson wrote:
I imagine mutton is more strongly flavored?

Mutton definitely has a stronger flavour, however the breed of sheep also affects the flavour.

My father would never allow mutton to be cooked at home, he disliked the smell of it cooking.

Many people won’t eat goat because they think that the meat will taste gamey.

I have never found that to be the case despite only ever having eaten wild goat. Admittedly, they have all been does or kids, never bucks.

Both mutton and goat meat benefits from long slow braising.

I've never had mutton, but I've had goat and lamb. I've never even seen mutton for sale - anywhere - any store, butcher shop, or slaughter house, either.

I like the taste of goat, but it can be tough!
Gamey is an odd flavor description.
The only time I recognized it was eating an elk steak.
Close to the bone the flavor was too strong, but my kids thought that part was the best part!
Elk is still the best steak I have ever eaten.

I was wondering how we treat sheep when they were part of our industrial food system.
Looking it up,usda says a lamb weighs about 140 pounds and yields approximately 46 to 49.
Ouch!
That seems bad, but a calf roughly the same age weighs around 750lbs and yields about 100lbs of meat.
A fully grown beef cow can take almost 3 times as long to get to 1200 lbs and yields 400 -500 lbs of meat.
Mutton takes almost as long as beef and yields  something like 110 lbs from a 200lb carcass .
At 1 or 2 cow per acre vs 4-7 sheep per acre mutton is more efficient, but that's no good if you can't sell it.

Sheep have reputation for being wormy and hard on pasture, but I think that might be cattle man propaganda.
Do y'all rember the Droopy cartoon?
Droopy the sheep herder vs the wolf cowboy?
"Sheep yeh durn fool!"

Sheep often bear twins, and mutton can be finished on corn, just like beef, but again, meat that people don't eat is gonna be niche product.
Hey, I don't eat invertebrates and they are probably the most efficient source of meat.
I don't have any religious restrictions, they just give me the ick.


Sheep as a way to collect grass into long release fertilizer(wool) seems pretty dope.
Is anyone using felted wool as a weed barrier?

I really like hogget, which is a sheep between 1 and 2 years old - more flavour than lamb, and bigger, but still reasonably tender. Most people here just call this "lamb" rather than "hogget" though.

Mutton is not available in shops here, but lamb is very popular. There are some small farmers that sell mutton, but they are pretty rare.

Years ago I went to a friend of a friend's sheep barbecue. I was hungry and my first helping tasted really good. But my second serving was revolting. At first I thought it was the tomatoes that it had been cooked with. (I like tomatoes now, but wasn't a fan then) I kept trying it, but it was still gross.

Several years later I was talking to a different friend about this experience. He had in laws who had raised sheep and goats. He said that if the wool touches the meat during the slaughtering process, the lanolin gets into the meat and instantly makes it all go rancid. So I must have had some rancid meat.

His in laws had a special procedure. When they skinned the animal, first they would cut a small hole in the hide. Then they would take an air nozzle and blow compressed air into the hide. This would separate the hide from the flesh and make it easy to remove the skin without touching wool to meat.

I don't know if lanolin makes mutton taste bad. I don't know if that procedure is helpful. But if mutton often tastes the way that I tasted it, I could understand why it is not popular.

For the same reason as people wanting green lawns in sun scorched arid areas, or build from flammables where fire is part of nature cycle, or want cows on green pastures in the dessert, etc. It's one culture quickly spreading to areas incompatible with this culture. It was always like that, but within short time local conditions affected the practices (building, growing, eating) and new quality was produced which could be called permacultural. The question is if this process (of permaculturization) is still going on or if globalization - even on national scale, completely suffocated it.

Mutton is a meat for arid regions - a must for arid South West and West where I can not produce (with substantial time investment and equipment) a meager 2 lbs of tomatoes or cucumbers, but can effortlessly (I only provide water) produce 500 lbs of top quality mutton/lamb in a year.
I love anything coming from sheep - young, old, all cuts, all organs. The best and most flavorful meat among popular meats. It needs recipes from the places that thrive on mutton - Greece, Middle East, northern Africa.

Here in the UK mutton fell out of favour too but it's slowly coming back, mostly through farmers markets and small butchers. Hogget is the easier sell apparently, sits between lamb and mutton so people who find mutton too strong are more willing to try it.