Mark Thorson > wrote in news:49E0FF82.BC5525B5
@sonic.net:

> Victor Sack wrote:
>>
>> The recipe calls for tail fat
>> of a fat-tail sheep. This is a special fat, not really replaceable
by
>> anything else. This is unfortunate, as fat-tail sheep, ubiquitous in
>> the Caucasus and Central Asia, are virtually unknown elsewhere.
Maybe I
>> should have tried a Turkish halal butcher... The dish is very
>> interesting and phenomenally aromatic. For wine, I used Robert
Skalli
>> Viognier and served it at the table, too.
>
> In this country, the tails of little lambs are cut off
> in commercial production, the justification being that
> nobody eats the tail so it's a waste of feed to grow one.

Fat-tail sheep are specific distinct breeds and I assume this is what
Victor is referring to. There is some small production of fat-tail sheep
in Australia, mostly I think crossed with Merino, to make sheep which
are more attractive to the Middle East market for live sheep exports.

--
Rhonda Anderson
Cranebrook, NSW, Australia

Core of my heart, my country! Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine she pays us back threefold.
My Country, Dorothea MacKellar, 1904