What are you all eating for Easter dinner? I know a lot of people eat ham. I was never a fan of ham so we tend to have a roast here. Easter is April 12th this year, at least for the American group of Christians.

For ham I tend to go with pinot noir (if you like red wine) and with gewurztraminer (if you like white wine). Both are gentle and a bit spicy and go with the sweetish flavors of the ham.

Roast lamb here ...

With a decent red, traditionally a claret.

I just asked my aunt what they had for Easter growing up, my grandparents were middle-of-US types. She said:

Baked Ham
Scalloped potato casserole
Green beans
Marshmallow fruit salad
Banana Spice Cake

I suppose lamb for Easter makes sense! Lamb and sheep are both rarely seen meats here in the US, I only occasionally see Lamb on a higher-end restaurant menu in the spring. I don't think I've ever seen mutton.

Peter - you've inspired us. Bob is going to make a lamb on Sunday. You would go for a Bordeaux with that, rather than a pinot noir? For some reason I always think of pinot noir when I think of lamb ...

Lamb is traditional because the new born lambs are in the fields and its the first fresh meat of the year. Its certainly a big deal in Greece at Easter still

Ham, I'd suggest, would be appropriate for Shrove Tuesday before the fasting of Lent. It would be the last of the meat preserved at the end of the previous year when animal fodder ran out and the animals had to be slaughtered and preserved to see the family through winter.

Some Pinot Noirs have the acidity to match lamb, but, here anyway, claret is traditional/

If no claret, then any bordeaux styled Cab/Merlot based blend, or I think a Rioja would also match well.

But, as always, have what you like.

That's really interesting to me, because for whatever reason I thought pinot noir and lamb (with mint sauce!) was some sort of a classic pairing.

I think in the US that we've completely lost track of what is "in season" during any month. We eat hamburgers all year long because they are in McDonalds. We have no ideas if cows are in season or out of season. We just eat them. We eat corned beef & cabbage at St. Patrick's Day because it's a tradition. I'm sure most people don't even know what a "corned beef" is

I run a low carb site and if anything I hear complaints about "asparagus costs too much!" because they're trying to buy one in December. It never even occurs to them that if they bought it at a different time of year it might cost something else.

Many people should make more of an effort to buy locally and to regain those ties with nature, to realize that for example strawberries cost less in the summer because they actually grow nearby.

I admit to loving *live* lambs so eating lamb is always hard to me. There's a "1850s village" near me that I love going to, with the small wooden houses and farms and tinsmiths and such. It has lambs and I love looking at them. They are so cute and friendly.

I think it was the late 1800's when refrigerated ships started bringing meat from the southern hemisphere and that changed our eating habits. New Zealand lamb is very big here in UK still.

Bordeaux was (is) also famous for sheep which is where, I guess, the link between claret and lamb comes from. Berry Bros & Rudd say on their site "the classic match of Claret and lamb."

And there's a very famous Bordeaux winery whose very name references lamb

Mint sauce -- I love it!!



Mint sauce with roast lamb, horse radish sauce with roast beef and apple sauce with roast pork, stuffing with roast chicken....

Here's an interesting post from Nick at Bordeaux Undiscovered

The Easter lamb represents Jesus and relates His death to that of the lamb sacrificed on the first Passover observed by Jews and Christians traditionally refer to Jesus as "the Lamb of God." The oldest prayer for the blessing of lambs can be found in the 7th century sacramentary of the Benedictine monastery, Bobbio in Italy. Two hundred years later Rome had adopted it, and thereafter the main feature of the Pope's Easter dinner for many centuries was roast lamb. continues at http://bordeaux-undiscovered.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-roast-leg-of-lamb-and-chateau.html

I'm not sure I like the symbolism of eating an innocent little lamb because Jesus was slaughtered ...

I'm not a fan of mint so I've never tried mint sauce with lamb. I should try it (and Bordeaux) to see what this tradition is like!

How do you actually cook your lamb? I think Bob was going to use the crock pot to make sort of a stew ...

Symbolism? What about communion and eating Christ?

I prefer lamb simply roasted. Leg of lamb is best.

Lamb can be get sour, I'm not so keen on it in a stew.

You mentioned mint sauce as a lamb accompanient above, I had no idea you'd never had it.

The thing is that it is supposed to be sharp to counter the fat and virtually all commercial sauces are so sweet you could have them with ice-cream, And mint jelly is an abomination

Made fresh -- mint grows like a weed and spreads fast -- you need the right variety, there are so many ...

This is how my mum made it: strip off the young vivid green leaves at the tips, you'll need a lot. Sprinkle some granulated sugar (to give a grip) on a chopping board and chop leaves very very finely, crushing some with side of knife to a paste (suppose you could do this with mortar and pestle). Put in a small steep sided dish (I use a ramekin), pour on some boiling water and let steep. Then when cool, add some wine vinegar so you have a thick green sauce, and leave to steep.

The sauce should have a bite from the vinegar, but not too much so adjust the amount of water/vinegar. And if its really too sour add a littel sweetening to taste (I never do).

I'm lazy: these days I buy jars of chopped mint (made by Colmans of mustard fame) and add water/vinegar.