On eating goat meat

[redtailgal]

Recently we (as in hubby) slaughtered Freezerburn, our experimental goat. The experiement was to see if we liked goat meat. We did! It was tender, and juicy. There was great texture and the flavor was awesome.

The slaughter method that we used was a bullet to the head, then quickly afterwards a solid throat slice. He was hung and dressed out the same way we dress out the deer that hubby and my sons hunt and kill.

For the sake of curiosity, we brought the meat home and pan seared a slice of loin, before it even had a chance to cool off. The pan seared loin was excellent, tender despite the rapid cooking method. The very end piece of the loin was a little tougher, but not so much that it was not wonderful to eat.

We chose to gind the shoulders, and once we had enough gound meat, we fried a patty, hamburger style. The result was a wonderful treat! The meat was VERY juicy, but there was no grease. Because of the natural juices, there was no need to add oil or fat to the pan (like one would have to do for ground deer), however, there was no grease to drain off (like one would have to drain for beef or pork). The texture was very nice, and the flavor was out-of-this world. It had an almost beefy taste, with just a hint of "something else".

I also took a small amount of meat and roasted it, BBQ style in the oven, chopping it like I would a pork butt after it was cooked. Again, it had a lovely texture, retained it juice much better than pork and the flavor was very nice.

Hubby has one of the hams on the smoker right now. We didnt add any seasoning to the meat, right now we are learning the taste and texture of the meat to best decided how and what we would want to season it with.

The other ham is in the freezer, awaiting the day that I choose to roast it. The loins are packaged and waiting for their day as country style goat steak.

With all this tasty goodness, I thought "this MUST be really unhealthy" so I did some research. Here is what I found:

Based on 3 ounces of meat:

Calories Fat (g) Sat. Fat (g) Protein (g) Iron (g)

GOAT 122 2.58 0.79 23 3.2

Beef 245 16.0 6.8 23 2.0

Pork 310 24.0 8.7 21 2.7

Lamb 235 16.0 7.3 22 1.4

Chicken 120 3.5 1.1 21 1.5


Note that the goat meat has less calories than all othe other meat but the chicken. SIGNIFICANTLY less fat while keeping the higher protein of beef, and a higher iron level than the other meats listed.

With goat meat being lower in Saturated fats, it wont raise your cholestorol gving your a lower LDL number! In fact, there is some information to show that the goat meat is higher in unsaturated fat.........a number that will raise your HDL (Good cholestorol).

Goat meat is very healthy! and it tastes good!

 

[20kidsonhill]

glad you enjoyed it, my kids and I love it, my husband not so much. I have wondered for several years know, with all the talk of healthy eating, and with how healthy goat meat is, why more people aren't jumping on the wagon to eat goat meat. But I suspect the secret is gettting out and there will be a steady increase in demand for it for the next few years here in the US. Not only due to an increase in ethnic popultion that already knows about how wonderful goat meat is, but because of an increase in non-goat eating people catching on.

 

[jodief100]

It is starting to become more mainstream. Whole Foods carries at some locations. The issue is supply, there are not enough meat goats available to supply any of the big grocery stores. If they can't get a regular, large supply they can't carry it.

 

[Queen Mum]

Very interesting information. I had goat meat at my sisters house about 25 years ago and loved it. It's the other red meat!


I think people associate it with the silly notion that goats eat anything and so it must taste strange. Too bad we can't get the word out in a more coordinated fashion. Meat Goat farmers would finally get some payback for all their hard work and maybe make some decent money!

 

[MrsDieselEngineer]

We eat quite a bit of Goat here, and love it I believe worldwide it's the most widely consumed meat. Just not in the USA.

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing Now I am curious, lol.

 

[DKRabbitry]

I think that the goat meat is a bit more like venison than anything else I could compare it to. I have only had dairy goats though. One older culled doe and a couple intact buck kids. These were someone else's culls, so I didn't really have much to say about them being intact or anything, I was just grateful for the opportunity to put some affordable meat in the freezer. The older doe had the most flavor and was tougher as to be expected. It was too warm to let her age at all, but it was still really good for being put right in the freezer (but I love flavorful meat, even if it is "gamey")
Next year, I will be banding all my bucklings and they will either sell as pets/pack goats, or they will be put in my freezer come fall/winter when they will be good sized, not nasty rutty and it will be cold enought that we can allow them to hang for a little while. I also would LOVE to try lamb... I hear good things.
Around here I still get a lot of funny looks from most people when I say I eat domestic rabbit and goat meat and drink goat milk. I just chock it up to lack of information and closed minds.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

I think the US has gotten to far from thinking of survival to thinking of these animals as pets. Horses were a food source here once, but now they are viewed as hobbies or pets. Kind of like how in Korea they eat dogs, but here it is frowned upon, because they are doesticated pets. I hope someday that Americans learn to appreciate goat, deer, moose, bear(makes really good sausage, btw).

 

[Queen Mum]

In Korea they eat dogs because it is considers an aphrodesiac and you DON'T want to know how they are killed. It would make you very, very sad. They also eat cats. Their death is even worse.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

I do not know as to how they are killed, but the point remains that America has gone soft when it comes to what we eat, because we are a fat lazy cushy country that can afford to pick and choose what we want to eat. I almost hope for another great depression, so that some of the more picky people would gain respect for what they are eating.