Diced Whissendine Mutton
Meaty pieces of shoulder and leg from properly finished or ‘fattened’ Whissendine sheep, suited slow braising in the oven until tender and deeply flavoursome. If you’ve ever enjoyed slow-cooked brisket or chuck, then you’ll love this too.
Ideal for making curries, tagines and stews – here’s our mutton braising guide for recipes and tips.
Often known as Cull Yaw or Cull Ewe, Fattened Mutton is rich and intense, with a complex, almost beefy flavour and wonderful covering of fat. Its superb eating quality is due to a long life grazing over diverse grass and herbage, building up layers of flavour and marbling slowly over several years. Fattened Mutton benefits from hanging time in the cold room, so we’ve dry-aged these Whissendine ewes on the bone for just over three weeks, further deepening the flavours and tenderising the meat.
Price range: £5.50 through £22.00
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Suitable for all sorts of curries and stews, we recommend a slow oven-braise for best results.
You’ll find full recipes for braising mutton here, however here’s the basic braising technique.
Turn your oven on to warm to 150°C.
First prepare a sauce base in a sturdy casserole pot – plenty of onions is a must, include diced carrot, Celery and/or fennel if you wish. Lightly caramelise the vegetables for a stew, take to a darker brown for a curry or more intense flavour – the mutton can handle it! Bay leaves, herbs, tomatoes or garlic as you wish.
Place a heavy-based frying pan over a high heat and sear the mutton in batches. You don’t need to brown on all sides as this may toughen the meat…instead, sear one side to a good crust and leave the rest to be braised. Season with salt while the meat is in the pan.
Transfer the mutton to your prepared sauce base, stir well and add enough chicken stock or water to only just cover the meat – some pieces may be slightly exposed still. Add a lid and braise in the oven for 3 hours, stirring half way through and topping up the liquid if needed.
Let it rest for at least 30 minutes before serving, skim off some of the fat. Finish with some fresh herbs and/or lemon zest and season to your liking.
COOK’S TIP: For best results, braise the day before you wish to eat and chill the stew in the cooking pot. Before reheating, remove some of the fat from the surface (save it to cook with – it’s delicious!) and place into a 120°C oven to warm gently. Add any herbs and final seasoning just before serving.
Please remove all paper wrapping from your meat and place it on a plate in the fridge away from cooked items. This allows air to circulate around it properly, helping to prolong shelf life.
Average shelf life: 2-3 days.
Vacuum-packed meat can be put straight in the fridge and has a longer shelf life.
