RESTAURANTS AND DINERS GIVE EXMOOR HORN LAMB THE THUMBS UP

Customers taking part in a survey of Exmoor Horn lamb, at four leading restaurants across Exmoor, gave it a big thumbs up and scored it nine out of ten for its eating quality.

The results of the survey were announced at a lamb tasting day, which was part of the Exmoor Food Festival staged, at the Culbone Stables Inn Porlock, by the Exmoor Horn Sheep Breeders’ Society. Visitors to the event were treated to delicious local Exmoor Horn lamb served in a Somerset mixed herb bap, specially created, by the Avenue Bakery Minehead, for the food festival and the lamb tasting day and was accompanied by roast potatoes.

In the survey, eight lambs from Exmoor farmer J R Richards and Sons were slaughtered and butchered locally by Combe Martin Meats and supplied to four leading restaurants across Exmoor who specialise in serving local produce. The participating restaurants, Andrew’s on the Weir, Porlock Weir, Exmoor Forest Hotel, Simonsbath, Tarr Farm Inn and Restaurant, Tarr Steps and Woods Bar and Restaurant, Dulverton, asked diners who chose lamb off the menu to complete a brief questionnaire at the end of their meal. The table below (Table 1) shows how the results from 107 completed survey forms compared across the four restaurants.

TABLE 1 – Results Presented Anonymously
Restaurant A B C D
Appearance 9.0 9.3 8.6 9.6
Tenderness 9.6 9.4 9.2 9.3
Succulence (juiciness) 9.6 9.6 8.6 9.5
Flavour 9.8 9.4 8.7 9.5
Overall Impression of your Lamb Dish 9.6 9.7 8.8 9.7

From the results it can be seen that there was a very high degree of satisfaction among diners surveyed at all four restaurants.

When the results are averaged across all restaurants and dishes served, the following overall results are obtained and are presented in Table 2.

TABLE 2 – Overall Results
ATTRIBUTE SCORE
Appearance 8.7
Tenderness 9.1
Succulence (juiciness)8.9
Flavour 8.9
Overall Impression of your Lamb Dish 9.0

One of the restaurants surveyed also distinguished between their results and compared a roast lamb dish prepared from leg of lamb and a dish prepared from the boned out loin. The results of this comparison are shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 – Comparison of Two Different Lamb Dishes
Dish Roast Leg Loin
Appearance 9.0 8.7
Tenderness 8.6 9.7
Succulence (juiciness) 9.4 9.3
Flavour 9.0 9.2
Overall Impression of your Lamb Dish 8.8 9.3

“These results reinforce what many of us who eat Exmoor Horn lamb have known for years, that lamb produced from this breed that is naturally reared in its native surroundings is very special and tastes absolutely fantastic,” commented Ian Rigby, the Society’s Meat Marketing consultant who organised the survey. “We are now working on developing an Exmoor Horn brand for both lamb and mutton so people will be able to identify and buy these meat products in the future,” concluded Ian.

Exmoor Horn sheep and their ancestors have roamed the hills of Exmoor for centuries and have long been prized for the eating quality and flavour of its lamb and mutton. At the beginning of the last century the meat was much sought after by some of the most prestigious restaurants in London. As farming systems changed and became more intensive, however, with the post war quest for cheap food, traditional breeds like the Exmoor Horn became less popular and numbers declined.

Exmoor farmers never lost faith in their native breed and through a strong breed society, formed over one hundred years ago, they have improved the breed and maintained commercial numbers to the current level of 19,000 registered breeding ewes.

The Society’s Chairman, Pauline Lyle, is quick to point out that:

“though a long standing traditional breed, the Exmoor Horn is in no way a rare breed and when crossed with a Bluefaced Leicester ram the resultant Exmoor Mule is considered to be one of the most productive sheep around.”

The Exmoor National Park Authority has also recognised the importance of the breed as an integral part of Exmoor heritage in awarding the society funding to maintain and increase flock numbers on the moor, through the Exmoor Sustainable Development Fund.