Mint condition: Why does lamb go so well with a certain jelly?

Three hours south of Denver, a husband-and-wife team of ranchers are working hard to help reintroduce Colorado lamb to the meat-devouring public. As detailed in this week’s cover story, “Counting Sheep,” the Triple M Bar Ranch in Manzanola ships lamb to over a dozen restaurants and caterers, who use it in a dazzling variety of ways: grilling it, broiling it, braising it, slow-cooking it.

But as lamb’s popularity has risen and fallen and risen again over the past century, one thing has remained a constant — mint.

See also: – Counting Sheep: Triple M Bar’s flock is raising hopes for a Colorado lamb comeback – Panzano chef Elise Wiggins makes the most of Colorado lamb – Chef Elise Wiggins wants you to feel good about food

No one quite knows when mint became so associated with lamb. According to menus unearthed in the collection of the Denver Public Library’s Western History and Genealogy Department, lamb chops with mint and even mutton with mint were mainstays for hole-in-the-wall saloons and fine china eateries alike in the old West.

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