A lamb from around 80 to 130 days, weighing 16 to 25 kg (35 – 55 lbs). During the early phase the animal has a diet of milk, then grass in summer and autumn through to hay and fodder in the winter. The flesh is a little more coloured than that of the agneau de lait, and with a little more flavour.
Young, milk-fed lamb, unweaned and not yet eating grass, around a month old and weigh between 5 and 10 kg (11-22 lbs) and aged from 20 to 40 days. The flesh is pale, tender and mild of flavour. Generally available around Easter.
A lamb, killed before the age of 80 days, which feeds on the milk of ewes which graze on the salt marshes in coastal Médoc in the south west of France. The salt is said to flavour the meat, as in agneau de pré-salé and agneau de Sisteron but it is not necessarily salty. (IGP and AOC).
Agneau de pré-salé is lamb pastured in salt marshes washed by the sea in the immediate vicinity of Mont St-Michel. The meat is always served young and usually roasted. The grazing is said to flavour the meat which is always salty. This occurs because of a wonderful process called “embruns” by which the wind off the sea blows droplets of salt water onto the grass.
Lamb which is very sought-after, the meat said to be flavoured by the diet of the animal, as is the case of agneau de pré-salé and agneau de Pauillac. This may or may not mean that the meat is salty. These are killed before they are 150 days old. An IGP protects the description, which is limited to a radius of ca 100 km around Sisteron.
A lamb from around 150 to 300 days, weighing 20 to 30 kg (44 – 66 lbs) living on a diet of grass. The flesh is darker and stronger in taste than that of agneaux de lait and agneaux de boucherie.
Easter lamb. In France this is not a culinary term but a religious one. Also known as "agneau de Pâque".
Young, milk-fed lamb, unweaned and not yet eating grass, around a month old and weigh between 5 and 10 kg (11-22 lbs) and aged from 20 to 40 days. The flesh is pale, tender and mild of flavour. Generally available around Easter.
Ewe lamb. Feminine form of agneau. An animal up to the age of one year, before weaning, at which point it becomes a "mouton", weighing around 10 kg (22 lb).
