Rascal
Head Chef
I too do not like american grown lamb. Superior Farms makes lamb raised in the USA. It's more like beef than it is lamb, I swear. On the other hand, I don't like overly gamey tasting New Zealand lamb.
We've discussed this topic of lamb before. Lamb grown in the USA are fed mostly grain now (little or no grass) their entire life. No wonder it resembles beef nowadays. Hardly any lamb taste.
Lamb from New Zealand are fed mostly grass, up until butchering time when they switch to feeding them grain. However, too much feeding of grass can make NZ lamb taste way to gamey for me. Too little grass (usa grown lamb) makes the lamb resemble and taste like beef. Feeding grass to lambs is too costly in the US today, so they've switched to feeding them mostly grain their entire growing cycle (little grass at all, too costly). The end product isn't lamb, it's more like beef.
USA Superior Farms "lamb for stew" packages resemble cubes of beef. Very little fat on them to have to trim off, which is nice, but at the cost of true lamb flavor. I've resorted to buying and cutting up shoulder lamb chops for my lamb curry recipe. More expensive? Yes, very much so.
I have a few farming friends, our lamb are grass fed, I'm not aware of any being fed grain. Same with beef, grass fed, again not aware of grain fed beef. I used to breed racehorses, I fed these with Lucerne hay along with grass. Our lamb is the best tasting meat IMHO. If I lived in Texas I would prolly say beef was my fave. Tandoori lamb cutlets is my wife's fave dish. So tender. I hope you guys get to try kiwi lamb.
Russ