The narrative element of the housewife killing her husband and letting the policemen eat the evidence was used by Pedro Almodóvar in his 1984 movie What Have I Done to Deserve This?, with a leg of mutton.
According to Jason Hool, "Lamb to the Slaughter" demonstrates Dahl's fascination with horror (with elements of black comedy), which is seen in both his adult fiction and his stories for children.
While he is looking out of the window, Mary suddenly strikes Patrick in the back of the head with the frozen leg of lamb, killing him instantly.
Upon her return to the house and to the room where her husband lies dead on the floor, she acts surprised and starts crying, then calls the police.
Considering Mary above suspicion, the police conclude Patrick was killed by an intruder with a large blunt object, likely made of metal.
At the very end of the program, because network practices of the time would not allow a murderer to get away with their crimes, Hitchcock returns to explain that Mary Maloney finally was caught after trying to bump off her second husband in the same manner.
In 1979, the story was adapted by Robin Chapman for Roald Dahl's British television series Tales of the Unexpected, with Susan George as Mary and Brian Blessed as the police detective in charge of the investigation of her husband's murder.
This episode ends slightly differently from the original story: having finished the leg of lamb, the four police officers get up and leave the kitchen.