Matt Tebutt on Mutton Great British Food Revival

Some of the best British produce is under threat.

-At the mercy of foreign invaders, market forces...

-And food fashion.

-Produce that has been around for centuries...

-Could die out within a generation.

So together we're on a mission...

-To save it.

-We're going to be giving you the best tips how to find it, grow it and cook it.

And, crucially, how to put sensational British produce...

Back on the food map.

I'm Matt Tebbutt and there's one thing that I'm passionate about reviving.

It's been overlooked and overcooked for far too long.

But when done properly, it can be spectacular.

It's British mutton.

'Mutton has acquired a bad reputation as a tough, second-class meat when, in reality,

'it packs a powerful flavour that I believe is even more delicious

'than the more popular alternative of lamb.

'So as part of my revival, I'll be visiting a sheep farm to find out where that flavour comes from.'

Wow! Here they come. Look at them. They're amazing.

Well, amazing to me. You see them on a daily basis.

Fantastic. And, you know, these are looking well. They're ideal for mutton.

'I'll be getting to grips with the quality of their sheep.'

I feel like James Herriot.

'I'll be asking one of our top Indian chefs what he thinks of the British attitude to mutton.'

They have got something fabulous that they've been ignoring for the last six generations.

'And I'll also be in the revival kitchen conjuring with the exotic flavours of North Africa,

'as well as helping you rediscover a forgotten British classic.'

If that doesn't change your opinion, nothing will.

'As a chef, I know how wonderful and diverse mutton can be.'

It's good, gutsy flavours that people can recreate at home.

My love of mutton came from reading old-fashioned cookery books.

And mutton is weaved within all these pages.

But it deserves a place on the family dining table and I'm on a mission to go and put it back there.

'The definition of mutton is generally accepted to be the meat of a sheep over two years old.

'This makes it very different from the much younger lamb which floods our supermarket shelves.

'Unlike lamb, mutton is from an animal that has grazed,

'giving the meat a wonderful deep red colour and a succulent texture.

'However, our modern, fast-paced lifestyles have steered us away from our slow-cooking traditions,

'leaving mutton's once-proud reputation behind it.'

Well, isn't mutton just tough old sheep with the wool taken off?

'It's this opinion that I want to change.

'But this isn't the first time I've championed mutton.

'In 2004, I was involved with a mutton renaissance campaign

'that set out to get the nation eating this wonderful meat once more.

'Seven years on, and I still can't find it in my supermarket.

'So I want to ask the chairman of the campaign, John Thorley, what's going wrong.'

-Good, good, good. Right, are you going to show me some sheep?

-Yep.

Now, John, you're a key player in the mutton renaissance

and I remember being part of it a few years ago

at the big launch, where there was a big drive

to get mutton back on our tables and get people eating it.

But I can't find it. Still after this time, I can't find it in supermarkets.

I can't find it in good butchers.

Well, there are problems with that, but what we're doing this year...

I mean, it's been going out to the small family butchers

-and those that are finding a trade, finding a demand, are actually building up their supply lines.

-OK.

But it has been trialled recently in one of the supermarkets

and we'll be analysing how that's worked in the next few months.

So very much a sort of drip, drip effect and, hopefully, sort of build upon a solid foundation?

Absolutely. Well, that's what's important.

So, John, why should the British public be eating mutton over their regular Sunday roast?

Simply because, in the first place, it is a first-class meat.

It brings a new eating experience and people are looking for new eating experiences all the time.

Mutton does it. But more than that, it's vitally important for us to put income back into the sheep farms.

'For my first revival recipe I want to highlight how mutton is as much

'a part of British heritage as it is a truly tasty meat.

'So I'm heading to Cotswold Farm Park

'to meet one of our oldest breeds of sheep, the Soay.'

-Yeah, these are the Soay.

-This is as near as we have to an original sheep bred in this country?

Exactly, yeah. They are really the ancestor of all British sheep.

You know, man would have been running around in loin cloths eating these animals.

You need to be used to eating game or venison

to enjoy the Soay, because it has a strong smell and a strong flavour.

Right. So it's like the connoisseur's mutton?

It is really I'd say, yes.

Obviously, you can get mutton from all the breeds.

It's just a meat from an animal that's mature, that's grown-up.

-And the Soay are great conservation grazers and part of our living heritage, part of our history.

-Yeah.

And what people need to do is to buy into the whole idea of what mutton is. So it's a mature animal.

And think about not only the flavour and the deliciousness of the meat,

but also the provenance and where that meat has come from and that it's been around for centuries.

-Before you know it, it'll be on the supermarket shelves.

-Yeah. They just need to try it.

-Yes.

'So to further tempt you to try mutton, I'm going to share with you

'three fantastic recipes that show it off at its best.'

So this is a piece of Adam's Soay mutton and this is going to be a pressed and crisp breast of mutton

with a lovely leek and egg vinaigrette.

I'll put a few anchovies in there as well for a little bit of seasoning.

But it is delicious, don't be scared.

Just looking at the colour of the meat and the quality of it.

There's not big lumps of fat on this.

It hasn't got a really thick layer running along it,

which would indicate that this is a really well looked after beast.

'This belly is going to be braised in the oven with some vegetables and some stock.'

Now mutton stock I find quite strong, so a lamb stock or a chicken stock would be just as good for this.

'What I love about braising is that it gives the meat a chance to absorb all the flavours in the stock.'

The idea of the seasoning in the cooking liquid, it will go right the way through...the mutton,

rather than finishing it off.

Seasoning it at the end, you'll just get the top layer of salt and then you'll get the meat.

But in this way, it gets the flavour running right the way through.

'The first lesson to preparing great mutton is to allow much longer

'for the meat to cook and this belly is no exception.

'After it's been braised in a low oven for two hours, press it in the fridge overnight.

'In the morning, you will have a wonderfully tender piece of meat

'full of the flavours of the British countryside and ready to be pane-ed.'

The meat itself is delicious.

Absolutely delicious. But what you want to do, by cooking it again

under that extreme heat, the crispness of the crumb that you're going to get

and the fat melting again is just utterly delicious.

'Cut the flat belly into fingers

'and then prepare your pane mixture.

'I'm using breadcrumbs with a sprinkling of mustard powder.'

Doesn't look much at the moment, but the meat is intensely rich

and there is a certain degree of fat going through.

So the more mustardy, strong flavours you have to cut through the fat, the better.

'You also need a bowl of seasoned flour and another with two eggs to help the breadcrumbs stick.'

So using one hand, preferably, let's get the meat in the flour, finely coated.

Lose the excess.

Into the egg and then finally into the mustard crumb.

A very, very nice, thin coating and that's it.

That's all you want.

'The mutton is now ready for the frier.'

Now this is on about 160 degrees.

Nothing too hot, because you don't want to burn the crumb before it gets the heat into the middle.

So I'm going to stick three of those in for now.

'The heat from the frier will soften the mutton fat and invigorate the flavours of the braising stock.'

So after a few minutes, that's what you're looking for, this lovely golden brown colour.

OK, so whip them out and drain them off.

'I'm serving these delicate strips of mutton on a warm bed of leeks

'dressed with anchovies and a thick vinaigrette.'

Lamb and anchovy are a classic. Mutton and anchovy works just as well. Let's have a little bit of...

the vinaigrette.

And then on with the little mutton fingers.

'All you have to do now is to tuck in to a taste of history.'

Mm-mm! That is...

even though I say so myself, delicious. You've got everything. That lovely, rounded flavour

of the mutton. You know, it's only a sliver,

but it's big and it's powerful and it's rich, you know.

And I urge you to try this because this mutton is going to wow your friends.

'A huge part of my enjoyment of mutton is finding out where this great-tasting meat comes from,

'so that's where I'm taking my revival now.'

So if I want to learn more about mutton, I've got to come to the source

and what better place to start than right here in Wales.

'I'm heading just outside Mochdre in the Montgomeryshire hills

'to a sheep farm that has been producing mutton for generations.

'John and Daniel Rees have been working with sheep and enjoying mutton all their lives.'

Good to see you.

So you guys over the years must have eaten a lot of mutton.

We've been brought up on mutton

and my mother, you know, every roast would be mutton.

And I think the flavour that mutton offers, it's mature.

-And, you know, six around the table, we wanted a leg that covered us all.

-Right.

-And mutton could offer that.

-So you're advocates of pushing this...

-Definitely.

'On this farm, mutton sales are on a par with lamb and I'm sure that's rooted

'in John and Daniel's passion for this forgotten meat.

'As Daniel heads up to seek out the flock, I'm really excited to see something

'that has graced this valley for centuries.'

Wow, here they come! Look at them. They're amazing.

They're amazing to me. You see them on a daily basis.

Fantastic. You know, these are looking well. They're ideal for mutton.

-You're proud of your sheep?

-Oh, amazing, yeah. Fantastic.

-I'll tell you...

They're good-looking sheep, but the terrain is beautiful, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-It's not sort of scattered...

When you think about it, because it's so steep, we actually can't get them ploughed,

so the grasses are old. That's where the flavour comes from.

-They can't half move.

-They can, yeah.

MATT CHUCKLES

Where are the sheep off now?

We'll take them down to the homestead, where we can go through

and see what goes for mutton and see what goes for further breeding.

OK.

'Over the last ten years, sheep numbers have fallen in Wales by a quarter

'and I was desperate to know what effect this has had on the quality of John's mutton.'

If you actually look now, there's a lot less sheep in Wales, so there's a lot more grass about

and therefore we're actually having better ewes.

-More meat on them, more fat on them.

-Right.

So the quality of mutton has risen to a very high standard.

-This is the time to start eating mutton?

-This is the time to start eating mutton, yeah,

definitely. And I tell you, it's going to push lamb aside.

We believe that these ewes here are some of the best mutton in the world.

'I want to get John to talk me through where some of our mutton cuts come from.

-'But to do that, I've got to get hold of a sheep.'

-Right, quick!

I feel like James Herriot.

-There!

-Now you've got him!

-You want to be able to feel the ribs a little bit. If you can't feel them, he's too fat.

-Right.

-If you were at your restaurant, you wouldn't want that, would you?

-Yeah.

-You want to feel... That, for me, that would be in perfect condition.

-Right.

And then you've got your shoulder, yeah?

And the belly, belly meat, yeah? You've got a lot of flavour there.

-And then you've got your Sunday roast here...your leg.

-Yeah.

-What we're going to do now, we're going to taste exactly how good this is.

-Right, OK. Not this one.

-Not this one.

-Good. I feel better about that.

-OK.

-OK, let's go.

-I'll let her go.

Ah! I've never caught a sheep before. It's pretty amazing actually.

I think on the whole, I probably enjoy playing with the meat, rather than the living beast, as it were.

Yeah.

'It's on the sheep farms of Wales that so much of our mutton heritage is kept alive.

'John doesn't only know how to raise the perfect sheep, he also knows how to cook one, too.

'He's serving up some classic mutton dishes.

'Amongst them, a leg fillet, a mutton ham and a Welsh stew, called a cawl.'

That's great.

'For me, it's a rare treat to be having dinner with a group

'of family and friends who are so passionate about their produce.'

So, guys, what do you think needs to be done to get people eating mutton?

It's not just substitute lamb. It's a totally different way of cooking.

You have to spend time on it.

But the flavour you get, the taste, well worth the effort.

-There's no additives.

-Just grass.

Yeah, it is. It's as healthy as you can get.

-Well, without sounding too romantic, I think you can taste it, can't you? The fat is so sweet.

-Yeah, yeah.

And you know it's going to be good quality meat.

I haven't had any of that actually.

That was fantastic. That just proves to me how adaptable and accessible

mutton can be and that scene should be in households all across Britain.

Now if you've had mutton in the past, chances are it's been boiled and chances are

you probably haven't enjoyed it. But this is the classic British recipe that's going to change your mind.

It's boiled leg of mutton with caper sauce.

So this is the star of the show.

This is a leg of mutton from John and Daniel's flock.

Just have a look over it. If there's any lumps of fat,

just take those off.

But this is a very well looked after beast.

'Season the meat generously.

'Then place it in a large, well-buttered pot.

'Next, slice five white onions.'

So that's pretty much all the hard work over.

I mean, that's it. Just a few onions and then it's done.

And then you can stick it in the oven.

Nice, long, slow cooking.

Go out, walk the dog, go to church, whatever you want to do.

And then come back and dive into it.

'Make a simple aromatic bag from muslin.

'This will flavour the meat and save you hooking out the stalks once the mutton has cooked.

'I'm simmering the mutton in white wine, which will supply a crisp compliment

'to the meat's rich flavour.

'Then make a cartouche out of greaseproof paper.'

The idea of the cartouche is that it seals any flavour and any moisture in that's given off during the cooking.

It's going to hit the buttered cartouche and then go back down on to the meat.

And that's it. There's no need to bring it up on the stove. Nothing.

It goes into an oven, hot oven, about sort of 140 for between an hour and a half to two hours.

'If you thought the mutton prep was easy, then the caper sauce is even easier.

'Stock, cream and capers go into a pan on a medium heat.'

That's good. It's lovely. It's delicious, it's rich, it's velvety

and it's everything that you want that dish to be.

But, essentially, that dish is done and ready to go.

'Slow cooking and mutton go hand in hand and, after so little effort, I'm always stunned by the results.'

There, that's what you want. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

You can see all that juice that's been created by the onions and that white wine.

That's just fantastic.

'I'm serving the mutton with classic accompaniments of boiled potatoes tossed in mint

'and some red cabbage.'

This is just great, kind of homely food.

It's the sort of thing I love cooking.

And there's the fantastic mutton.

It just cuts like butter.

And finally, a little bit of our caper sauce.

Let those juices kind of mingle in.

'Boiled mutton with caper sauce is a traditional family meal

'that has largely been forgotten, so I can't wait to taste this.'

Meltingly tender meat.

Mm.

Oh, that's good. You know, you've got the saltiness and the sharpness

of the capers cutting through the richness of the meat, the big, round, full-flavoured meat.

That's everything you could ever want in a dish.

So if that isn't going to change your opinion on mutton, nothing's going to.

What I've learnt so far on this journey, is that mutton is everything I knew it was.

It is a quality, heritage product that we should be embracing and celebrating and eating more of.

What I'm not sure, however, at the moment, is how we're going to get people to do that en masse.

'In search of answers, I'm going to my local town of Abergavenny

'and the annual food festival

'that draws a crowd of 37,000 people, all of them passionate about food.

'Most of the mutton in the UK is cooked in our ethnic communities,

'where it is still prized as a special and important meat.

'Cyrus Todiwala has been serving mutton to the masses at Abergavenny for six years.'

When you look at Indian cooking, because of the spices,

the onions, the garlic, the chilli,

everything else that goes into it, mutton can absorb those flavours

and release its own flavour back into the gravy.

People forget a classical korma is a Lancashire hotpot.

-Right.

-That's the classic expression of a korma.

-OK.

-So when you cook meat in a chunk with vegetables and potatoes in a sealed pot

and all the juices that ooze out and form a gravy, that's a korma.

Now a Lancashire hotpot is an ideal mutton dish.

So in your eyes, mutton is a key product? It's a top quality piece of meat?

It is top quality. And where in the world can you get as good as British? You tell me.

We can't. We have the best breeding grounds in the whole world.

I think we need to push the British public into believing

that they have got something fabulous that they've been ignoring for the last six generations.

'Cyrus's passion for mutton is infectious

'and, spurred on by his enthusiasm, I'm taking my revival back on the road.'

My next stop is the capital.

I'm going to see who else is cooking with mutton.

'Indian cooking isn't the only culture to embrace mutton.

'In the East End of London, Warren Richards' speciality

'is a Caribbean mutton curry and the locals can't get enough.'

How are you? Good to meet you.

So what makes your mutton curry so special here?

Why are all the City boys coming here and lapping it up?

It ain't broke, so I ain't fixing nothing. So I make it as it is.

I make it spicy.

The dish is spicy, so I make it spicy. And they come back for it.

-Where's your recipe from?

-From my mum.

-Oh, really?

-But like, I've adapted it a little bit.

-What, have you made it better?

-Er, no, I'm not saying that!

'Warren is willing to share with me the secrets of this family curry.

'I just hope he's told his mum.'

-Right, this is the mutton. It's all cut up in nice, neat pieces.

-You leave it on the bone?

-Yeah, I leave it on the bone. You get more flavour out of that.

-Yeah.

-What have we got here? What are these spices?

-Right, I've got thyme.

That's a bit of tandoori powder that I put in it as well.

-OK. So crossing all boundaries here, aren't we?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Right.

-This is Scotch bonnet peppers that I've chopped up.

-Are you putting all that in there?!

-I'm not going to put all that in there.

-I was going to say.

-No...

Ay carumba!

-How often do you have to make this?

-Every day I make it, every day really.

-This amount?

-Yeah.

-Wow! Big seller then?

-Yeah, it's very popular.

When we used to go to parties when I was younger, it would be curried goat and rice, or mutton and rice.

I was a human dustbin when I was younger.

THEY CHUCKLE

-Right, so we've got hot oil here.

-Yeah, we've got oil.

-Marinated meat.

Marinated, yeah. Put it in the pan.

-Just a bit at a time?

-Yeah, a bit at a time.

Is that enough for now?

No? All right.

-Oh, you want it all in?

-Put it all in, yeah.

-OK.

Ordinarily, when I'm making some sort of braise or stew like this, I'd be chucking loads of wine at it.

-Loads of white wine or red wine.

-Yeah.

-Any beer in there?

Once you taste that, you'll know it won't need it.

'It's just over an hour before this Caribbean curry is ready to eat.'

Mm.

Oh, that's delicious.

That's how I like to cook it, just like my mum or like my nan in Jamaica would have it.

-It's kind of one of those dishes that transports you, yeah?

-Yes, that's it. Yeah.

'Even in Warren's spicy curry, the flavour of the mutton is really in evidence.

'I love it, but I need to convince you, the Great British public.'

Hello. Right, I'm not going to tell you what it is. I want you to try it and tell me if you like it or not.

-I bet it's probably squirrel, isn't it?

-There's a little bit of spice in there.

It's not squirrel, I can tell you that. It's delicious. We've just made it.

-Yeah, it tastes nice.

-Yeah.

-It's quite a big texture, isn't it?

-Mm.

-Have you tried mutton?

-No.

-OK. Well, now you have.

-Oh, is that mutton?

-That is mutton.

-I don't think I've eaten mutton for a long time.

-You like mutton?

-I do, yeah.

-Oh, right, brilliant!

-Would you have reached for mutton if you saw it on a menu?

-No.

-No?

-OK. So now perhaps you would.

-Yes.

So there you go, not a bad result that. A few converts under my belt.

I love it. They were kind of impartial but some of them I think were really getting it.

But I'm going to go back to Warren for a bit of a top-up.

So this is my third and final mutton recipe.

Now, we've seen the Caribbean community use it a lot. The Indian community use it a lot.

So I'm going to be doing my North African-inspired dish.

This is going to be my shoulder of mutton tagine.

I'm using the shoulder for this dish and this is going to be perfect.

There's lots of connective fat and tissue going through this lovely piece of meat. By the time

it's finished cooking, you're going to be able to pull it away with a couple of spoons.

'Start by trimming off any excess fat.

'Once the meat is cut to a more manageable size, seal it in oil.'

SIZZLING

I first came across this dish in Marrakech, Morocco,

and this really is one of those classic, sort of one-pot dishes, you know. You throw it in the oven,

a couple of hours, bring it out, put it on the table, big bowls of couscous, or rice,

or some nice flatbreads and let everyone dive into it.

It's a really kind of communal eating experience.

You know, a couple bottles of wine. It just goes down a treat.

'When the mutton is browned, put it in a pot and add some exotic flavours of North Africa...

'coriander...

'cumin seeds...

'crushed garlic...

'and star anise, which works beautifully with mutton.

'Then add a few chopped onions and the rinds of some preserved lemons -

'a real secret for a great tagine.'

Take the middle out. You don't want the middle. But the edible part is...the skin.

It gives a lovely citrus, very mild, lemony, salty flavour.

'Next, add some saffron, tinned tomatoes...

'some stock...and two chillies.'

And that's going to be just enough liquid just to keep it going,

to keep it moist. It's not a stew, so you don't want to completely cover the meat.

It's a long, slow sort of braise.

This is just going to be a beautiful-smelling, delicious-looking

pot of mutton and veg, and it's going to be thickened slightly.

You get all those lovely aromas, those sort of North African aromas.

So lid on - heavy lid.

Two to three hours until you can just flake the meat apart.

'Part of the reason mutton has fallen from grace is that it doesn't fit in with the impatience of modern life.

'Great food doesn't always come quickly and this tagine is no different.'

Ah, here you go!

This is the best bit.

Oof! Wow! It's pretty hot. OK, so that's exactly what you're looking for.

Lots and lots of juice, flavours are fantastic, but what it needs now is just a little bit more kick.

'Freshly chopped mint and coriander will give this tagine a real lift.'

Like that.

Stir that around.

And you can smell it already.

'I'm serving my tagine with couscous and, in true Moroccan style, on one dish

'so everyone helps themselves at the table.'

There you go.

That's what you want, big slabs of meat. And you can see

how well it's cooked, because if you look at the bone,

the bone just comes away, like that.

That's what you want. Like that.

So...on with the other meat. And you can see

it's a pretty sizable beast.

So there you go. That is my North African-inspired mutton tagine.

'I hope my revival has inspired you to go out and start your own mutton renaissance.

'If you want to get hold of some, the best place to start is your local butcher.

'Alternatively, you could contact the sheep farms directly using one of the ever-growing number of box schemes.'

The advantage of a box scheme is you're able,

at your own convenience, at your own leisure,

to order online or over the phone. You can pick exactly what you want

without having to go to your butcher's and have it delivered to your door.

There are a few of us producing it because we can

and we're serving the needs of a few. But, you know,

if the general public as a whole say, "We want to start eating mutton again," more and more farmers

will start producing it and, again, you build that revolution where we'll have it back on the plate.

For me, this has been a real journey of a much misunderstood meat and, you know,

it's versatile, it's delicious when it's done properly

and it's out there, so you can all get it.

And it's high time we took it out of the 19th-century cookery books and put it on our tables today!

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