Halal British Mutton

Mutton wants two to three hours of gentle, covered cooking before it gives way, roughly twice what the same cut of lamb needs. Hold it at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, and keep bone-in pieces such as shank, neck and trotters whole so the collagen has time to soften. Chops and Henry's bone-in leg steaks are the exception, cut thin enough to sear and serve quickly.

All of our mutton is British and halal, and the certificates behind it are published on the site at /pages/halal-certificate. Because the supplier roster rotates every few months, that page is kept current rather than fixed to one name. We buy only non-stunned halal meat, and the buying runs through halal-certified suppliers into Noori Halal Ltd. The mutton is cut by Noori Halal Butchers on the day your order is dispatched.

Yes, East London is covered by our own vans, Monday to Saturday, on an 11:00 to 20:00 window with live tracking to your phone and the meat held at 0-3C in the van. The cutoff for a local slot is 23:59 the night before. Covered postcodes run across E1 to E18, IG1 to IG11, RM1 to RM20 and EC1 to EC4, plus parts of N, NW, W, WC, SE1 and SW London.

Not quite a week: use mutton within 6 days of arrival, which is the fridge window from the day it is delivered. Anything you will not cook inside it should go into the freezer on the day it arrives, still in its vacuum bag, where it keeps for up to 12 months with no rewrapping. A bone-in leg or shoulder needs a full day in the fridge to thaw, so plan a slow-cooked dish a day ahead.

Mutton is meat from a mature sheep and lamb is from a young one, and that age gap is the whole point. The older animal has a deeper, more pronounced flavour and firmer connective tissue, so mutton holds its shape through long simmering where lamb would collapse. It is the traditional choice for paya, nihari and salan. Cut for cut the two ranges mirror each other: leg, shoulder, chops, shank, neck and mince.

Mutton mince is sold at two fat levels, 10% and 20%, in 250g and 1kg packs. The leaner one suits keema and kofta where you want the spices forward, while the 20% mince holds moisture better through a long-cooked salan. Mince is milled on 4.5, 6, 8 or 9mm plates, and a hand-chopped grind under 5g is available if you want a coarser, more traditional texture.