Just to set the record straight - lamb and mutton come from the same animal. Lamb is the meat taken from a sheep under one year of age. Technically, sheep that becomes more than one year old is called a "hogget", and its meat is called mutton!...

No meat-producing animals have had as long and profound an association with civilized man as sheep and their offspring.

As agricultural civilizations sprang up around the Mediterranean, in India and elsewhere in Asia, sheep - which could survive almost anywhere and produced wool for clothing as well as meat for food - remained the principal source of meat. Even today, the word "meat" in almost any Middle Eastern recipe means the flesh of sheep.

The strongest testament to the importance of these animals, however, is their role in religious ceremonies. In early religions, the primary sacrificial animal - and the one therefore most valuable to man - was the lamb. This role is echoed today in the festivals of the major Western religions. In Muslim countries, lambs are roasted whole to celebrate the New Year and other important rites of passage - weddings and the birth of children, for example. Lamb - served, as specified in the Old Testatment, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs - is also the prescribed food for the Jewish Passover feast in the spring. And lamb, significant for Christians, particularly in Italy, Greece and other countries where the pastoral tradition is strong.