If this interests or intrigues you, check out this blog entry. The author equates eating lamb tails with eating ribs. There's also a Kiwi recipe for lamb tail curry soup and fried mountain oysters (lamb testicles).In the Middle East, it's far more traditional to eat or cook with sheep-tail fat. Fat-tailed sheep, which comprise 25 percent of the world's sheep population, concentrate their fat in their tail and rump region. The only fat-tailed sheep in the U.S. is the Karakul.
Sheep-tail fat is called allyah (in Arabic). Though other fats and oils have largely replaced sheep-tail fat, it is still used in modern Arabic cookery, especially in rural, mountaineous areas. You'll find lots of recipes on the Internet that call for sheep-tail fat.
Historical religious text (Hadith) claims that sheep-tail fat was a "cure" for sciatica (lower back and leg pain caused by irriation of the sciatic nerve).
