What is the setting of “Lamb to the Slaughter”?Anything, such as the time, the place or whatever.

It is significant that Mary is expecting a baby because
the story takes place during the so-called Baby Boom. The United States Census Bureau
defines the Baby Boom as the period between 1946 and 1964. It was a period of great
prosperity because Americans were on a buying binge after World War II ended in 1945.
Millions of men were discharged from the armed forces and the majority of them wanted
homes and families. One of the consumer items that was extremely popular for a short
time, coinciding with the Baby Boom, was big home freezers which looked like huge white
coffins and were usually kept out in the garage. People bought them because they thought
they could save money through buying large quantities of meat at wholesale prices. The
popularity of big home freezers probably ended with the end of the Baby
Boom.

There were several drawbacks to home freezers. One
was that there could be power failures and an entire freezer full of steaks, roasts,
chops, etc., might have to be thrown out. Besides that, the freezer used a lot of
electricity, since the meat had to be kept frozen twenty-four hours a day for 365 days
of the year. The cost of electricity detracted from the savings supposedly resulting
from buying in quantity. There was also some doubt about the taste of meat that has been
frozen for a long period of time. This doubt is discussed by Mary and the grocer in
Dahl's story. It seems reasonable to assume that a steak or roast that had been kept
frozen for many months would be tougher and would not taste as good as one that was more
fresh. Furthermore, a big cut of meat had to be thawed out for a long time, which was
inconvenient. If a housewife wanted to cook a leg of lamb, she would typically have to
let it thaw out on the kitchen drainboard for one day and night in order to cook it the
following day to be eaten for dinner that night. Manufacturers began introducing
gigantic refrigerators with extra-large freezer compartments on top, and these became
the standard appliance for most households because they are more
"user-friendly." 

Mary can only cook her leg of lamb in a
big hurry because she turns the oven on at the top temperature. The detectives take an
inordinately long time searching the house. Otherwise there was no way they would be
able to eat the murder weapon in the time frame involved. This is a weak point in the
plot. A police team ought to be able to search a suburban house thoroughly in an hour or
less. It is hard to imagine what they could have been doing for such a long time.
Anyway, the story was originally published in Harper's Magazine in
1953 during the America's great Baby Boom, and it is safe to assume that the time in the
story was approximately 1953. It has an historical interest as well as a literary one
because it depicts life in America during the consumer boom and the Baby Boom. It was a
time when the husbands were the breadwinners and the wives were housewives and mothers
who did the cleaning, shopping and cooking. Perhaps Mary's perfect crime could be read
as an early blow for militant feminism. Her unborn baby would be about sixty years old
by now.