Goat


 
This question interests me, too. A neighbor has two yearling wethers, mine for the taking. Have no idea what to do with them, but willing to try most anything. Thinking maybe to cold smoke a haunch or two. Beyond that, will entertain anything from the skillet to the Bullet.
 
KB, you still around?

Roasted two legs of yearling goat tonight, thawed from last night. Had no real direction, no experience with goat, but decided to follow my usual pattern--pretended there were wings attached to the seat of my pants.

They appeared quite lean and small, less than a coupla pounds each, bone in. So I fired up the Weber kettle with a rectangular pan of water in the middle of the charcoal grate, unlit briquets and smokewood to either side held behind Weber fences, half a chimney of hot coals distributed over the two piles, and the goat legs placed in a Weber "V" basket, over the water pan.

Because of their lean appearance, I made an emulsion of lemon juice and olive oil in the blender, adding to it fresh oregano, garlic and onion. This I spread evenly over the legs after I first rubbed them down with kosher salt and coarse black pepper.

I kept the kettle at about 350 to 375 pretty much the duration, basting again with the oil-lemon paste halfway through the cook. Figured on 2.5 hrs. and that's what it took to get 185 internal.

Served it with pilaf made my mother's way (long grain rice sauteed in butter until lightly browned, sufficient chicken broth added for liquid and the juice of a half lemon stirred in after completion, seasoned with salt and coarse black pepper). Had also a fresh garden salad of mixed green lettuce, picked and washed while the meat rested. Added some sweet onions also from the garden, and tossed in olive oil and lemon juice. A glass of merlot for benediction.

The meat was terrific. A little tough where I started carving and eating, down by the shank, but as we worked up toward better meat we both started smiling and enjoying hell out of it. Had a terrific charred outer appearance, though of course it wasn't, and a lovely smoke ring all around. I squeezed more fresh lemon and added salt and pepper to the carved pieces.

The meat was tender, moist and flavorful, reminiscent of choice lamb. Grilled this way brought back memories of my youth on one occassion when the Greek community held its annual dance and picnic while a lamb turned over an open spit in the background. A little Proust in all of us, I reckon.

Next time, I would introduce some garlic slivers into the meat, as we do with lamb. The garlic flavor was not profound enough for our taste.
 
Mary thought they were cute, like something Vikings at banquet tables would grab by the fistful and throw at each other.

Leftover

P.S., The cooking range was 325-350, not 350-375.
 
I cook a lot of goat on my bullet.

I buy it at a halal butcher, and they'll only sell you a half or whole goat. It's usually frozen, but they occasionally have fresh. A whole goat carcass runs around 20-25 pounds there. I have them cut the half-goat into thirds-- the leg, the ribs, and the foreribs/shank. for a whole, I have them split it bilaterally first.

I then flavor brine for two or three days. I use a cup of kosher salt and half a cup of sugar per gallon of water, and a ton of tumeric. The halal place has a good deal on sacks of tumeric. I like the yellow color it gives the meat and the mild peppery flavor.

The stuff comes from the butcher pretty much untrimmed. I've experimented with trimming the ribs, trying to pull off a membrane as one would do for pork ribs, and it doesn't seem to matter. That membrane is hard as hell to remove on goat, and the meat wasn't any better.

After the brine, I just coat them with garlic olive oil. I've used tabasco and black pepper, and that worked fine, but I like the garlic a bit more.

Set the smoker for 240. Cook the leg for 12-18 hours. I have yet to overcook one. It takes about 12 hours before it starts to pull like pork. Cook the ribs for 6-8 hours, the forerib and shank section for 8-10. no finishing sauce, no mops. I've done alder, maple, and hickory, and combinations. I prefer straight up hickory.

The leg is hard to screw up. If it's not cooked long enough, it doesn't pull, but it's like a firm pork butt-- not bad at all. the shank tends to turn out really well. I have screwed up the ribs before. It was by far the largest goat carcass i've ever got from them, so maybe it was just a tougher goat, but I also cut the cook time a little short. The ribs were cooked, but tough.

Since these guys are the only place I know who sell goat, and they have a great price on whole carcass lamb, my next project is going to be learning how to trim up these carcasses a bit better.

Anyhow, check your phone book for a halal butcher, they're likely to have goats. If you're lucky, they'll sell the leg separately, and you can just start with the best part.

If you like the slight gamey flavor of lamb, you'll like goat. That flavor is more pronounced, even moreso than in mutton. And it's a tougher meat, but that also means that you can get it to pull, unlike lamb.

Last super bowl, I smoked two goat legs until they pulled and used that as a basis for chili. That was pretty good.

This year, I'm just going to try smoking a whole lamb carcass, no chili.
 
Hi, I'm a new member, haven't even fired the WSM up yet. Although I have used a Weber grill for many years & I raise meat goats for my own use. The quality of the meat varies significantly. Most goat meat sold in the US is old culled dairy goats, but a young small (40 lbs or so) meat goat is as tasty and tender as it gets. Recomend a slow cook at a lower temperature. Because its a lean meat keep it moist. The upper rear leg is the best part. I'll be putting some on this weekend and will post a follow up
 
Rich

Look forward to seeing your future posts on cooking goat meat. I lease some pasture land to a fellow who raises meat goats - Boer goats. Probably has 150 to 200 or so. Recently I noticed he had added sheep.

I read some of his publications on Boer goats and it is interesting.

After reading what you post, I may give goat meat a try myself.

Paul
 
I was given a couple of legs of a baby goat (I think it was only a few weeks old, the legs were around three pounds each) last weekend by a friend whose parents are goat farmers.

I made up a paste of a couple of tablespoons of Dijon mustard blended with a couple of tablespoons of curry powder. I added four cloves of crushed garlic, a generous dash of soy sauce and then two or three tablespoons of olive oil. I finished off the paste with the juice and zest of 1 lemon and marinated the goat in it for 90 minutes at around 150C/300F. I then cooked it without the water pan in for maybe 90 minutes or so with a small chunk of hickory though I think I would have used some mesquite if I'd had any on hand.

Worked really well and my guests were very happy as there were no leftovers. The meat was quite pale as the meat came from a very young animal. It was as pale a veal, but with a more pronounced flavour, but not gamey.

Served it with a green salad and some grilled corn.
 
bringing an old topic back up. As far as locating goat meat find someone who raises them for 4h or FFa . The lady in our area started getting such a request for her goats for meat she now sells for both reasons.
 
Is the taste of Goat very simialr to mutton? I would probably have an easier time finding goat meat than I would a mutton shoulder.
 
Since most goat is slaughtered young, no, not to me. It's more like lamb though meat from older animals, if you find it, does veer toward a flavor like mutton.

Mutton is hard to find. It's not worth the time/$ so is commercially unviable. Lamb shoulder isn't hard to find--usually.
 
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