What is dry-aged mutton and why is it so good?

Our mutton comes from 2-year-old sheep who have been grazing on the rich meadows here at Wernlwyd.

Mutton is meat from any sheep over a year old. Meat from younger sheep is ‘lamb’. Our mutton is always from 2-year-olds and above.

Dry-ageing means hanging the entire carcase in a maturation chiller on the bone after slaughter to tenderise the meat and deepen the flavour. We’ll reveal all the secrets if you stick with us…

Firstly, why do you rarely see mutton on sale? It’s because there’s not as much money in it as there is in ‘finishing’ lambs at six months. But for us it’s all about staying classy and making sure our customers can eat the very best.

Grey Alders Farm Shop →

Here’s how it works. On the Grey Alders farm (Fferm Wernlwyd in Welsh) our male lambs are castrated very soon after birth.  They grow up with their sisters and become ‘hoggets’ after a year.  After two winters the ewes are ready to have their first lambs.  Meanwhile, the castrated males, now called ‘wethers’, are ready for slaughter.

Most of the lamb on supermarket shelves has never seen a winter. But we have found those extra two years mean a bigger, leaner carcase with much more meat.  And the difference in flavour is immense. We think it’s better than beef.  Whoever wrote the folk song ‘a Rosebud in June’ back in the day (collected by the famous Cecil Sharpe in a pub in Somerset in 1905 and beautifully sung here by Steeleye Span) agrees:

‘The best of all food’. Mutton ready to eat.

‘For their flesh it is good, it’s the best of all food,
And their wool it will clothe us and keep our backs from the cold.’

Keeping back the wethers for meat as we do today is exactly what they did at the time that folk song was written. The song details the sheep at their various stages. There are ewes, lambs, hoggets, rams and lastly wethers. It’s the wethers which will go on the roast or in the pot. It’s awesome to realise that we – and you – are going about things in such a time-honoured way:

‘Here’s the ewes and the lambs, here’s the hogs and the rams
And the fat wethers too they will make a fine show.’

Our mutton carcases hanging in the chiller

They say ‘fat’ wethers but they are lean compared with lamb. So after slaughter we hang the two sides delivered from the slaughterhouse in the maturation chiller for dry-ageing. Meat contains natural enzymes. Their job is to break down collagen, a long, stiff protein which makes meat tough. The longer the meat enzymes have to do their work, the more tender the meat will be. The meat enzymes also create a unsurpassed depth of flavour in the dry-aged mutton.

Our Mutton Leg – aged for 35 days and filled with flavour.

Here at Fferm Wernlwyd / Grey Alders Farm, we hang our beef for fifty-six days. However, mutton is a smaller carcase and loses more moisture, so you will expect a shorter time-frame. All the same, we aim to dry age our mutton for thirty-five days on the bone in the chiller before cutting-up.

You want more ageing? Well, firstly, you rarely find mutton for sale anyway, for the reasons given. Secondly, literally no-one else in the UK that we know of hangs their mutton for anything like the length of time we do. You’ll find some of them boasting of hanging their mutton for seven days.

Mutton Shoulder

The ‘Mutton Renaissance’ launched by the Prince of Wales, as he was then, together with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in 2004, and celebrated by The Caterer in 2007, insisted on just fourteen days ageing. So what about 35 days, then, Your Majesty? Will that do?

What’s the advantage of the extra three or four weeks? It’s all in the unsurpassed taste and tenderness. Put that with grazing on our heritage grass and wild-flower meadows and the flavour of our dry-aged mutton is something like three times as intense as even the best Welsh lamb. It’s absolutely awesome. It’s the best of all food. Try some by ordering today!

Order now!

Popular cuts are Mutton Shoulder, Mutton Leg, Mutton Loin Roast, Diced Mutton and Mutton Merguez Sausages, (when we have the latter in stock – they are very popular!)  Or simply Click here for the Fferm Wernlwyd / Grey Alders online shop and choose from our complete range of 35-day-aged mutton and 56-day-aged beef.