How I Learned to Love Goat Meat

New York Times ^ | April 1, 2009 | HENRY ALFORD

[nickcarraway]

YOU never know where goat will take you. When I asked the smiley butcher at Jefferson Market, the grocery store near my apartment in the West Village, whether he had any goat meat, he told me: “No. I got a leg of lamb, though — I could trim it nice and thin to make it look like goat.” I politely declined. We fell into conversation.

I found myself telling him: “Koreans think eating goat soup increases virility. It can lead to better sexytime.” My new friend responded: “My lamb does that a little. You won’t want to every night, but maybe every other night.” Reaching toward his counter to pick up a mound of hamburger, he paused to ask, “It’s for you, the goat?”

Mine is the tale of the recent convert. Admittedly, I’m late to the party: goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world, a staple of, among others, Mexican, Indian, Greek and southern Italian cuisines. Moreover, it’s been edging its way into yuppier climes for a year or so now, click-clacking its cloven hooves up and down the coasts and to places like Houston and Des Moines. (When New York magazine proclaimed eating goat a “trendlet” last summer, one reader wrote on the magazine’s Web site, “Here are white people again!!!! Acting like they invented goat meat.”) A famed beef and pork rancher, Bill Niman, returned from retirement to raise goats in Bolinas, Calif.; New York City has a chef (Scott Conant) who’s made kid his signature dish.

Novelty and great flavor aren’t the only draws here — the meat is lower in fat than chicken but higher in protein than beef. There’s even an adorable neologism (“chevon”) for those who want their meat to sound like a miniature Chevrolet or a member of a

[Jeb21]

I’m sure some Arab terrorist around the world is reading the title of the article, and taking it completely out of context.

[DemforBush]

Goat is delish if it’s prepared right. I’ve had my share of gristle-tough goat, but tasting it done properly makes it all worth it.

I like goat cheese, too - at least I like Feta.

[JimSEA]

Pit barbecue goat with fresh baked tortillas and roasted chilies is great although a tad greasy.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Used to go to a goat BBQ in Santa Fe, Florida, super good BBQ! You DON’T want to eat an old Billy goat, however

[OneLoyalAmerican]

Hey, I resemble that remark!

[MaxMax]

I’ve never had Goat out of context.

[Squantos]

Bump to the kabobs !!!

[dragonblustar]

I’m on a huge goat cheese kick right now. I got to have it on toasted french bread with a slice of tomato.

[muir_redwoods]

I’ve been enjoying Jamaican goat meat pies for years. They are available at many lunch stands and restaurants here in Hartford. The NY Times will probably believe they discovered goat meat but I’m about 100 miles northeast of NY and the Jamaican restaurateurs here have been selling it for years.

[OBXWanderer]

You DON’T want to eat an old Billy goat, however

Cabrito

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Melts in your mouth! Cook it over Red Maple coals!

[EQAndyBuzz]

Cabrito rocks. We do a BBQ at a friends ranch and the ranch hand slaughters the goat and cooks it up for us.

Does take some getting used to but it is delicious.

[mylife]

Mmmmm...Cabrito

[mylife]

Carne de Borrego too!

[mylife]

[hiredhand]

Goats are the oldest domesticated animals on the planet and more goat meat is consumed annually that ALL other meats combined. This includes meat consumed in America, where by and large there's not a great deal of goat meat consumed.

We feed it to people who come for dinner and just don't TELL THEM what it is, but the same goes for deer meat and home grown pork. :-) City folk jam all sorts of crap down their pie holes anyway, so we just let them eat happily without worrying them with the details over what it IS. :-)

Here soon we'll be feasting on the stuff because our does birthed a disproportionate number of males this year and we simply can't keep them all. Most don't display good dairy characteristics anyway. We'll sell some for "companion" animals (for horses and other goats) after castrating them, a few for breedstock (intact), and the rest we name Bob which is short for Bob-A-Que!, and it's about the best eating a person could want!

Goat BBQ and cheese! I live off of the stuff most of the time. :-)

[hiredhand]

I was just thinking and I remembered something. We had a big LaMancha buck a couple of years ago and he had run his course here and we couldn't breed him back to anything we had. We couldn't find anybody interested in buying him as breedstock and the girls here didn't want to eat him because he smelled so bad. Buddy, this boy would bring tears to your eyes and take your breath away!

A Nigerian couple bought him from us. They showed up in a NICE NEW Volvo wagon and put this stinkbag in the back of that car! Me and SP just looked at each other wondering if that car would EVER be the same afterwards because this particular buck pissed in his beard about every five minutes or tried to breed something.

We asked them several times if they were certain that they wanted to haul him in that car and they said that they DID. I always wondered HOW they got the smell out that car...if they ever did!

[calex59]

We ate goat meat when I was a boy, didn’t have to, didn’t do it for religious purposes, but the area we lived in had many Italians, Serbs and other ethnic groups that ate goat, they had huge barbecues that featured goat meat, they raised herds of goat for milk and for meat, so everyone that moved to the area,which we had, kind of fell into the culture of it. Sadly, those days are gone and this area is just like the rest of the state now, at least as far as that type of culture goes. Goat meat, from a young goat, is very good, at least as far as I am concerned.