As Dead As Mutton......

[Chipchopper]

Sure, I know what it means but why 'Mutton' ?

[Buenchico]

Why not?

If it's alive it's a sheep. If it's dead it's mutton. (i.e. saying that something is 'mutton' must mean that it's dead; you can't have live mutton!)

OK, I suppose you could say 'As dead as beef' (which, for similar reasons, would mean the same thing) but the phrase originates in times when the meat found in most households would have been mutton. (Indeed, apart from the very rich, few people probably tasted any other sort of meat).

BTW: Mutton, properly cooked, tastes vastly better than lamb; it's simply not fashionable to eat it.

[FredPuli43]

You'll have eaten more mutton than you know. Curry houses serve "lamb curry", but big buyers of sheep ( 2 years up) are those buying for the Indian restaurant market. They are not interested in lambs (up to a year) or what are sometimes called 'hoggets' (one to two years).

[Iluvspikey]

No idea - I thought it was as dead as a dodo

[Chipchopper]

Good answer Buenchico, although I still find the phrase rather strange ???
Dodo seems more obvious, as the bird was hunted to extinction
Therese probably a few more 'dead as' sayings that also seem to defy logic
Thank's

[Wharton]

There are plenty of live 'dodos' around here :-)

[Quizmonster]

Dead as a doornail is the oldest of these 'dead as...' phrases, dating back to the 14th century. Another supposedly very dead thing was a herring. The mutton one is late 18th century and the dodo one is early 20th century. It seems that each age has its own version of what best represents 'deadness'.

[Grandma_Yiddo]

I thought it was " deaf as mutton". Which is rhyming slang, mutton jeff:deaf. I'm not a cockney, so that may not be correct.

[Buenchico]

An interesting point from GY.

The phrase 'as deaf as mutton' (or 'mutton deaf') is probably now far more common than 'as dead as mutton':
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/252125.html

[joggerjayne]

I've never heard the expression.

[THECORBYLOON]

Mutt and Jeff were cartoon strip characters, that became rhyming slang Mutt 'n' Jeff, which in turn changed to mutton jeff, deaf.