Lamb is usually not the type of meat you cook at home or around; that name would go to chicken, pork and beef. A lot of us are usually hesitant to try, so there are still so many things left undiscovered for us when it comes to food. Naturally, it is reasonable to be curious about its taste. It is most likely that you have yet to try lamb, which is why you are here in hopes that the answers to your question “What lamb tastes like?” will give you the satisfaction.
Here is a spoiler; it feels different from cows. So, if you are tired of your usual protein menu, try to change things and add a little bit more excitement to your life by trying out the lamb. This article will answer your question and more!
What is a lamb?
If you are still unsure of what lamb is, let me clarify it for you. The word lamb refers to a younger version of a sheep. Specifically, a lamb whose age has not even reached one year yet. You can call sheep meat in three different ways, all of them according to how old they are.
You refer to a lamb for the youngest; Hogget is for older sheep and Mutton for the even older ones. What makes a Lamb so unique is the fact that it is a lot tenderer when you compare it to both the hogget and mutton. There are many ways to eat lamb. The most common one that I think you have heard are lamb chops.
You would think that eating lamb is only for a fancy restaurant and that it is not something you would be able to make at home. Unbelievably, lamb chops are quite simple to make. If you do not want to go outside to eat lamb at a restaurant, you can try cooking it yourself within the comfort of your own home.
What can lamb do for you?
A fun fact about lamb is that unlike pork and beef, it is healthier in comparison to the two. It has many benefits that can help you and might even surprise you. Since eating large portions of pork and beef often can cause health problems, the first thing I would recommend would be considering lamb as a healthy alternative.
- It can help prevent cancer cells from growing or spreadingOther than protein, lamb can give you a bunch of other benefits like Vitamin B, some Selenium, a lot of Iron, and even Choline. With these four, the lamb will help prevent cancer cells from growing within your body and eventually spread in your entire system. For cancer patients, eating lamb will help stop the cancer cells from spreading any further to other tissues.
- It builds body muscle and helps lose body fat.Lamb can build body muscle and help lost body fat because of a little something called conjugated linoleic acid. Doctors use this type of acid to help overweight patients. It can help someone from suffering certain inflammations. If you go to the gym often trying to build up that protein, you can boost up your lifestyle by adding lamb into your regular diet.
- It can heal people with anemiaAs said in the first benefit, lamb contains a hefty amount of iron. If you or anyone else has anemia, one of the foods that you can eat other than the liver can be lamb. This will help a lot, especially when you are not very keen on eating liver like me.
- Helps increase bone healthWhen you eat lamb, you would be doing a great favor for your bones, because it can help strengthen them in many ways. From the density and to the bone structure, eating lamb meat would increase your health.
- Decreases the chances of one having a strokeLamb has potassium, a lot of it! When you consume potassium, your body can use it to help keep the flow of your blood at a reasonable level and even keep the amount of sodium in your body to a minimum. This way, it will decrease the chances of probable stroke attacks.
Read more: What do Lentils Taste Like? What Should I Expect?
What does lamb taste like?
Onto the main course, you frequently wonder about what does lamb taste like. Many times, you are unsure when trying out something new, but occasionally the experience brings benefits rather than harm. When I tried out the lamb for the first time, I was quite hesitant, but you never know how it is until you try. Therefore, to pique my curiosity, I walked with my chest forcibly puffed up with bravery, and I entered a restaurant that my friend had recommended to me and got my first bite of lamb meat.
A customer was nice enough to help me out upon ordering my first lamb. He said it would be perfect to ask for a “medium well” kind. Maybe he saw my confusion and awkwardness then. It turned out that he was not wrong after all and you will find out why soon.
When I took my first bite, I found out that it’s more firm compared to eating chicken, but not as challenging to chew than eating beef. The lamb meat is a lot tenderer when you compare it to any meat. It tastes very similar to beef, but slightly different because it has a particular gamey taste in every chew. If you happen to be eating one, let it stay in your mouth for a little longer.
Gamy is a flavor that tastes of game, any food that you get from hunting like deer meat.
As I chewed more into the meat, I realized that the tip given to me by a random stranger was worth it. Other than the gamey flavor, I was able to taste the amount of juiciness from the cooked meat. The way it floods into your mouth after chewing was divine. I realized then that the reason why lamb meat had a more intense flavor compared to cows was that unlike them, sheep get to walk around a lot more. With that, they have better blood flow within their muscles.
Although the taste will remind you of cow, there is an apparent distinction between the flavors. A difference will immediately tell you that, ah, this one is lamb. The reason why we can tell is that the lamb has a fatty acid called a branch-chain fatty acid. The one that gives off the gamey flavor and spreads around your tongue. A factor that helps keep the taste on your tongue a little longer compared to eating other kinds of meat.
While you chew it, the flavor is enriched by the aroma that spreads as you tear through the meat. With the scent and the taste combined, it provides you with an experience like no other. If you were someone who likes to go to the gym to build up some muscle, then I would recommend you to switch your beef with lamb meat. It is much healthier and still gives you a high amount of protein.
However, lamb does not taste like that all the time. The flavor and tenderness of the lamb meat depend entirely on the external factors like the condition of the meat before consumption. Of course, raising lambs within closed areas where they cannot walk around as much as they need to will affect the quality of the taste when cooked. The delicate flavor would not be as strong as it would.
Other than their surroundings, what the lambs eat is another thing that could influence the taste of lamb meat. You will be surprised how noticeably delicious lamb meat can be when cooked in different variations. You can bring out many kinds of tasty quality recipes for lambs by merely changing the way you cook it.
As a bonus, I have included this video to give you at least an idea on how to cook a lamb. I chose the lamb chops recipe since it is what is popular among exotic foodies. Enjoy!
Conclusion
I hope that this article was able to get you very close to imagining just how lamb tastes, giving you are motivated to eat it! All I can do is to describe the taste with words according to my own experience. However, you can never really taste it for sure unless you try it for yourself. However, it might be a bit different compared to what you usually eat. I would understand why you would be hesitant before actually trying it out, but trust me; you will not regret eating lamb meat.
Lamb meat has so many health benefits and is healthier than other different kinds of meat. Hence, switching or cutting down on your regular beef in favor of lamb would do a lot for your body. If you get your first taste of it, you will realize that the unique taste of lamb will be something that you would often want in your life. However, keep in mind that an excessive amount of it would do the opposite of good for your body.
So, did you get an idea of what lamb tastes like? Did it give you the urge to go out and try it for yourself? If so, have fun going out to eat lamb for the first time!