Hogget with mint and pine nut sauce at The Camberwell Arms.

Choose hogget this Easter

30 Mar 2026

Journalist

The Camberwell Arms’ Mike Davies on why you should be eating hogget, not lamb this Easter. Plus, a recipe for braised hogget with mint and pine nut sauce

With Easter weekend looming, your thoughts are no doubt turning to cooking an epic feast, with family gathered at the table for a showpiece meal of leg of lamb with all the sides. You may have already ordered the meat from your butcher.

But if you haven’t placed that order yet, we implore you to consider hogget this Easter, a more grown-up and tasty animal for your Easter spread.

You may remember last year, we spoke to Farmer Tom Jones about meat seasonality. One of his bugbears was the poor quality of spring lamb (or new season’s lamb). The animal simply hasn’t had time to graze on nutritious pasture having been born at the turn of the year and slaughtered before the grass has turned green. This is why hogget (a sheep between one and two years) is a much better choice, says Jones.

Mike Davies, chef-owner of London’s Camberwell Arms, one of the city’s best gastropubs, who incidentally buys his hogget from Jones, agrees.

“I don't like spring lamb because it's only been on pasture for three or four months. It has very little flavour, the bones of the animals haven't even fully developed by that point,” he says.

“Increasingly with meat, there is a drive for tenderness over flavour, and where younger lamb might be marginally more tender, it will be significantly less flavourful than something that has had at least six months to mature,” he continues. “As with any grass-grazing animal, the best time to eat them is post the summer's grazing on the best grass of the year. So if you're going to eat new season's lamb, do it in September/October when it has had some time to mature on pasture and develop a bit of character. When it comes to Easter, in my opinion, we should all be eating hogget. Not only is it a far more flavourful product, but it means farmers don't have to rush through an early crop of sheep to the slaughter just to keep up with a fabricated consumer trend.”

How to enjoy hogget this Easter

Davies has provided a recipe for braised hogget with mint and pine nut sauce (pictured above) so you can enjoy and introduce others to the delights of the meat this Easter and discover why it’s the tastier choice for your Easter meal. The recipe serves 2-3, but could be stretched or scaled up. He has great tips for those sides too.

“I would go completely classic and make a gratin dauphinoise, but I'd recommend chopping loads of wild garlic leaves through the cream for the gratin for a beautiful seasonal variation. The first of the Italian peas are also available around Easter time, and I love a big bowl of barely cooked petit pois à la Française, with crisp lardons of smoked bacon and a beurre blanc stirred through. Some shredded lettuce completes this as a perfect Easter lunch,” says Davies.

His recipe for braised hogget can also be made one or two days in advance to “absorb flavour from the braising liquor”, so you can take things a little easier on the day itself. Just remember “to check the seasoning once it’s hot again, as sometimes longer stints in the fridge can sap salt,” says Davies.

Mike Davies’ braised hogget with mint and pine nut sauce recipe

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

For the hogget

1 shoulder of hogget (or mutton for ultimate flavour)
Salt
Plenty of good olive oil
10 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1 red chilli, split but whole
2 large onions, peeled and cut into large dice
2 heads of garlic, cut in half but left whole
2 tins of peeled tomatoes, the best quality you can buy
Half a bottle of white wine
1.5l chicken stock
A mixed bunch of rosemary, thyme and bay leaf, tied with string

For the mint and pine nut sauce

150ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp cumin seeds
6 cloves of garlic, finely grated
1 tbsp hot smoked paprika
80g red wine vinegar
50g caster sugar
50g pine nuts
1 large bunch of mint, finely chopped on the stalks
Salt and pepper

Method

For the hogget

Preheat your oven to 120°C.

Season the hogget shoulder heavily with salt, and colour in a cast-iron casserole with a lid. Start the hogget on a low heat with a splash of extra virgin olive oil with the fat side down. Move the meat around until it’s evenly and well browned. Then remove it and keep to one side

Add a decent layer of olive oil, the anchovies and the chilli. When the anchovies have started to melt add the onions and garlic and turn the heat up. Season the onions well with salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes until they have started to soften and colour.

Add the tomatoes, crushing them in your hand as you go and discarding the excess juice (use for a Bloody Mary). Then add the wine and bring to a simmer for 5 mins.

Add the stock and herbs, and check the seasoning (remember you’re seasoning the meat all the way through; it should be punchy at this stage). Bring up to a simmer.

Add the hogget back in, leaving the top slightly exposed. Get the lid on and put the hogget in the oven for three hours or until tender to a skewer.

For the last half an hour, turn the oven up to full and take the lid off to crisp the skin.

For the mint and pine nut sauce

Add the oil, cumin, garlic and smoked paprika to a pan and cook over a low heat until the spices have become aromatic.

Add the vinegar and sugar, bring to a boil, then remove from the heat.

Toast the pine nuts in an oven or a dry pan, and add to the dressing whilst still warm.

Once the dressing has cooled, add the mint, and season well with salt and black pepper.

The dressing should be fragrant and balanced in terms of acidity and sweetness; you can adjust at this stage with sugar and/or vinegar if you need it.