This is not at all what I planned, but I ended up with a whole lot of mutton. We knew for weeks we were going to have this mutton, so I set out doing some research. Most of my friends had never eaten mutton. I had never knowingly eaten mutton. My grandmother loves it, “oh its delicious.” But only from an old ewe that’s spent its life foraging on the mountain vegetation of northern Utah and raised by my Old Papa. For most people mutton was something joked about but rarely eaten. I like it.

Randy suggested we have all the chops cut and grind the rest. So that’s what we did. We had Meats Royale do the butchering and I was very very happy with the price and their work. I had a special request: I wanted half the ground mutton mixed with ground beef (a 50 50 mix). We got the beef from our friends at Homestead Natural Meats. We ended up with 26 pounds of mutton beef mix.

This we used to make sausage. The sausage is more like spiced burger. Great for sliders like the picture at the top. To determine the right amount of spice,  we would periodically make a little patty to fry and try.

To make the sausage I enlisted the help of my friend Alex Hartman. These are the three sausages we made.

Greek: Traditional Gyro mix

• 10 lbs mutton beef mix
• 2 Cups fresh Rosemary
• 2 Tbls dried marjoram
• 2 cups chopped caramelized onions
• salt and pepper to taste.

First caramelized onions in butter and let cool. Add ingredients and knead into meat. Let sit in refrigerator, covered, 24 to 48 hours taking out once to knead. Pack and freeze.

Garam Masala

• 10 lbs mutton beef mix
• 1 Cup dried mint
• 2 Cups chopped caramelized onion
• 3 Tbsp Garam Masala
• 2 Tbsp Crushed peppers
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Caramelize onions in butter and let cool. Add ingredients and knead into meat. Let sit in refrigerator, covered, 24 to 48 hours taking out once to knead. Pack and freeze.

Italian

• 6 lbs mutton beef mix
• 1/2 Tbsp fresh rosemary
• 1/2 Tbsp dried basil
• 1/4 Tbsp fennel seed
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 1 cup chopped caramelized onions
• salt and pepper to taste.

Caramelize onions in butter and let cool. Add ingredients and kneed into meat. Let sit in refrigerator, covered, 24 to 48 hours taking out once to kneed. Pack and freeze.