Goat Meat

Tell me about it. Have you bought it? Where?

What do you cook with it?

What do you like about it?

I have my own ideas but I am very curious about more input.

The only time I've had goat was a few years ago, eating roti from one of the best food trucks in NYC:
http://nycitynewsservice.com/2008/02/01/a-bull-market-for-roti/

Interesting. I cooked a roti for my son's breakfast this morning.

You can buy them frozen at Asian markets -- just cook in a frying pan, flipping occasionally, until they puff up.

AKA Pratha

I had some to-die-for goat dishes in Spain. Need to try that again.

Frank,

Here's a link I found a couple of months ago when researching goat to try out a new spit my son had just built:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4522762

Ended up cooking chickens... didn't try the goat because it was an unknown and we were feeding too many people that might not even want to try it.

Still sounds good to me.

Fred, thanks for the great article!!

The specific dish that turned me on to goat was Choto ai Ajillo, kid braised in garlic. Down in Andalusia they have restaurants that serve nothing but "Choto." I did not get my fill of goat during our trip around Spain.

I have found farms not too far away (near Princeton) that sell goat meat -- but I would rather not buy the entire beast, unless it is a really small kid. I have found various recipes for braising that use Spanish spices (like smoked paprika) and look like they would taste like my Choto. Sometimes you find recipes for "lamb stew" which probably originated as a goat dish.

We have middle eastern halal butchers around here, and also Jamaican groceries, so I just need to put a little more energy into my searching. And Vetri in Philadelphia sounds like it would be worth a trip. There are restaurants in NYC that serve cabrito (Sp) or capretto (It.) as well. This has been a fantasy for too long, I need to get busy and move in one direction or another. Or all directions at once!!

And you ought to find a proper use for that SPIT!

Tell me about it. Have you bought it? Where?

What do you cook with it?

What do you like about it?

I have my own ideas but I am very curious about more input.

Frank, I have had goat meat several times over the years and I do like it. IMO it is best when braised, but in Spain (Seville) I had it quite often from street vendors who grilled it on a stick along with veggies like onion, tomato, and sweet peppers. This was a dish that the moors brought with them when they invaded and ruled parts of Spain several hundred years ago.

I think of goat meat as being stingy, but with a sweet flavor, and without the lanolin like flavor/aroma of mutton. It can be rather tough, and that is the main reason for braising . I see it locally in Mexican markets, and quite reasonable in price too.

Goat is quite common in Caribbean and many African communities in the U.S. I first tried it in Washington DC about 25 years ago. I started cooking goat when it showed up in the Halal markets that have begun to spring up surrounding the African communities of the new immigrants. Our community butcher and a couple regular markets surrounding those communities now sell it. I find that goat does not have the distinct gaminess of lamb. It is mild in flavor, and if I had to explain its taste it would be a cross between lamb and veal. It's very tender and takes well to short braising, especially in curry and many of the spicy dishes of the middle east. You will be able to find many recipes for cooking goat on the web.

Curried Goat.jpg

Bob, thanks for the reply. "Stingy" -> Stringy, right? Sounds like my impression of the meat as well. Sevilla is of course down south in Andalusia and I think that is where goat is most popular in Spain. The halal butchers often sell it cut up for kebabs.

Jo Ann, wonderful picture!! Our church -- I don't go very often but Louise sings in the choir every week, is about half black and half white, which I believe is unusual. And the main reason is that it is an Episcopal Church, closest thing to Anglican, and so we get a good part of the Jamaican community as members. And when there are fund-raising sales and dinners you see things like black cake for sale. So I just have to figure out where they shop. I could ask Louise to have that conversation at choir practice. Thanks for the advice!

We are so lucky to have such diversity here, I am not sure it even occurred to me to ask about goat at the Mexican market I visit regularly.

I enjoy goat, but have never cooked it. I've got a couple saved recipes, figure sometime I'm going to be near Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn I'll stop at a halal butcher.
I mostly see in Moroccan/Middle Eastern places, sometimes in Indian restaurants, but my favorite place for goat is Krik Krak, a Haitian place on Amsterdam Ave. Used to be a total hole in the wall, now a full fledged restaurant. Have several preparations, but my favorite is braised in a creole sauce. I love goat, but think stews/braises are generally more likely to push my buttons than roast recipess.

PETA must have some influence with Google, because everytime I try to get a recipe for goat even when I specify "meat" it gives me recipes for goat cheese. All I know is that I can still taste a wonderful meal in San Antonio that was a braised leg of goat Cabellero. It was fantastic. Would love to have a recipe myself.

PETA must have some influence with Google, because everytime I try to get a recipe for goat even when I specify "meat" it gives me recipes for goat cheese. All I know is that I can still taste a wonderful meal in San Antonio that was a braised leg of goat Cabellero. It was fantastic. Would love to have a recipe myself.

Try the Bing search engine.

Aside from some of the Asian and Caribbean preparations mentioned above I often have Chanfana de Cabrito when I go to Portuguese restaurants in my area. Basically goat stewed in red wine, garlic and bay leaves - a bit more bony than lamb with a somewhat more gamy flavor, but delicious.

[Jenise]

Confession? I've never eaten goat. They're pets.

Jenise, I feel that way about Tilapia. One of my best pets ever was an African Black-chinned Mouthbreeder named Minnie. That was in grad school and I spent a lot of time interacting with her, I think she was as smart as a dog.

But people have pet lambs, pet chickens even. Like Tony Bourdain says, it is good to be aware that every time you eat meat, something had to die.

I've had goat a couple of times, most recently in the form of birria, a Mexican stew. Very tasty but I don't know that you get much "goatiness" out of it due to the other ingredients in the stew.

Interesting point Mike, it made me think.

The Choto I had in Spain that inspired all of this didn't taste "goaty" either.

It was just fabulously delicious and that is really what I want.

Probably the fact that it was a young kid meant that the meat had an even milder flavor -- closer to veal and farther from lamb.

And the other stuff -- tomatoes, garlic, a touch of hot pepper -- also had strong flavors that might have drowned out a grown goat.

I think the texture was probably the thing that would be hardest to reproduce with, say, chicken...

Silky soft and succulent.

I think the texture was probably the thing that would be hardest to reproduce with, say, chicken...

Silky soft and succulent.

Perhaps I have been lucky with the lamb I have eaten as well as cooked. I haven't found any of it goaty tasting or strong. And, the dishes have always cooked up tender and silky. A little bonier than lamb (small bones). But, IMO, a much better tasting meat.

I enjoy goat, but have never cooked it. I've got a couple saved recipes, figure sometime I'm going to be near Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn I'll stop at a halal butcher.
I mostly see in Moroccan/Middle Eastern places, sometimes in Indian restaurants, but my favorite place for goat is Krik Krak, a Haitian place on Amsterdam Ave. Used to be a total hole in the wall, now a full fledged restaurant. Have several preparations, but my favorite is braised in a creole sauce. I love goat, but think stews/braises are generally more likely to push my buttons than roast recipess.

In Mexico, goat is used in cooking, too. Even in our small, benighted community here in Indiana, we have Birrería Sandoval, a Mexican restaurant that specializes in birria, goat stew. I also love goat curries, which I've had both in the Caribbean and in Mughal Indian cooking. Hyderabad biryani, for instance, uses goat meat. Most of the recipes I've seen do call for cooking for braising, presumably because the meat is so lean that it'd dry out or become stringy using other methods.

Mark Lipton

The one commonly consumed meat that I just can't eat. All the goats I ever owned were used for milk and were pets. The kids were sold so I didn't have to consume them. Eating goat for me would be no different than eating dog. That just leaves more goats for others to enjoy.

Bow-wow!

Well, in my original post I asked "do you eat it, do you like it" -- not "Why aren't you eating more goat meat?"

And if I were trying to proselytize, which I am not, what I am about to say would certainly not do me any good.

But in Korean restaurants in America, one of the prized dishes, if you can find it, is black goat soup. This is supposed to be good for your health, probably including virility etc. A few Koreans who know the home culture have admitted to me that this is an American friendly replacement for a dog soup which is eaten in Korea, for similar "medicinal" reasons. Evidently the taste is similar.

I'm sure that puts the nail in the coffin for the "goats are pets" folks but that's OK, you guys wouldn't experiment anyway.

And just to spoil another food source, rabbit is reliably reported to taste just like cat meat!

Here is the poster boy for "My Pet Goat"

Don't have a good source for it in CT. But I've cooked it a couple of times, and enjoy it a lot in North Indian/Afghani cuisine - goat biryani, nehari (goat shanks slow cooked over several hours in a spicy curry with bone marrow), and minced goat kebabs in particular.

Well, in my original post I asked "do you eat it, do you like it" -- not "Why aren't you eating more goat meat?"

And if I were trying to proselytize, which I am not, what I am about to say would certainly not do me any good.

But in Korean restaurants in America, one of the prized dishes, if you can find it, is black goat soup. This is supposed to be good for your health, probably including virility etc. A few Koreans who know the home culture have admitted to me that this is an American friendly replacement for a dog soup which is eaten in Korea, for similar "medicinal" reasons. Evidently the taste is similar.

I'm sure that puts the nail in the coffin for the "goats are pets" folks but that's OK, you guys wouldn't experiment anyway.

There is an expression in Spanish "Me da asco" which describes my feelings toward my eating goat. Frank, FYI I do or have eaten deer, elk antelope, cotton tail rabbit, domestic rabbit, jack rabbit, armadillo, squirrel, bear and most all the game birds including crane without a problem. Having raised and consumed beef, lamb, chicken, duck, goose and rabbit eating the different meats is not a problem. It is simply that our goats were pets who gave us milk, companionship and a lot of fun. You will note I did sell the kids to others who ate them. I just choose not to eat them.