Why do people serve mint jelly with lamb?

Hi! Thanks for the question.

A lamb is a sheep which is no more than a year old. Mint jelly was
originally used on Muttons, older sheep and not on lambs. Serving mint
jelly with lamb or  is an old custom with the objective to disguise
the strong flavor of mutton used during the old days. This custom
still exists today even if we eat lambs.

This is covered in the following article "Lamb, The Other Versatile
Meat"
(http://www.pheast.com/eating/lamb2-01.html) The aforementioned
information is about 3/4 down the page.

To make it clear the article is about the reason why lamb is not so
popular in America. The reason for this according to the article was
mainly because US military men ate mutton not lamb. Since mutton is a
lower grade of meat it has a much stronger flavor, harder meat and 
wasn't that delicious. So they don't want it being served for the
family when they came home.

Here are some supporting articles:
The New Orleans Menu Daily by Tom Fitzmorris for InsideNewOrleans.com
http://www.insideneworleans.com/restaurants/food/menu_daily_4_11_01.html

http://www.conservativebookstore.com/cookbook/other/otherl.htm

MATTER OF TASTE: Chefs Fess Up by Joan Whitely
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2002/Apr-03-Wed-2002/living/18400256.html

You might find the following article about lamb cooking interesting:

AN OCCASION FOR LAMB by Reagan Walker
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/food/0314easterlamb.html

Search terms used:
serve mint jelly lamb

Hope this would help you in your search. Thanks again for being a part
of Google Answers.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

Thank you!

As well as mint jelly, mint sauce may also be served with lamb.  It is
a very similar condiment, although usually thinner in consistency and
less sweet than mint jelly.  It contains vinegar, sugar and chopped
mint.

Another traditional accompaniment to roast mutton is onion sauce and
redcurrant jelly, both of which also have strong flavours to combine
with the more robust flavour of mutton.

There is a nice roast lamb recipe at
http://englishculture.allinfoabout.com/features/easter-lamb.html

Mint sauce is a more common term in England and Australia (both of
which are large lamb consumers), mint jelly generally being aimed more
at an American market.  Similarly, 'jelly' (to spread on bread or
toast) is almost always known as jam in Australia.  What Australians
call 'jelly' is commonly referred to by the brand name 'Jello' in the
US.

Cheers,
Araminty

Well thanks for that from me in Australia. I was only recently
debating with some people here why it was that perhaps the tastiest
meat of all, young lamb, was not eaten much at all in USA. Apparently
the main comsumers over there are those migrants from lamb eating
countries.