# It's personal



## Duchesse (Oct 31, 2007)

I've eaten goat from the supermarket for many years. I was raised in the city. I didn't know what I was eating. Most of the time I bought a leg and had it cut into cubes for stew or curry. Sometimes I bought a family pack of cut up cubes. 

For those of you lucky enough to know what you are eating,

What is your personal best?

What breed? Why?

Is the size of the carcass most important or the texture/flavor/tenderness?

What age do you butcher?


Barbecued, stewed, curried?

I've heard that the boer can be tough, the myotonic tender, and the angora is touted as the best.

I'd like to hear first hand from you, what is your personal best goat meat and why?


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

I can't say what meat goat is best but I have raised Boer kids for my own use only. I have them butchered at 4 1/2 to 6 mos at 85-90 lb. I get about 45 % of the weight back in meat. So far I have wrangled trades for my doelings so have only had entire bucklings.
I think that more difference in meat comes from age and health than from the breed- someone who butchered at a year is going to have a different product thatn at 5 months- not neccessarily bad just different.
They are tender - I broil and bake or fry just like lamb or beef with the exception of the leg meat. That I have made into steaks and either cut thinly or using in the crock pot because I do find it a little tougher than the rest and do not like leg roasts anyway. My favorite thing is the ribs which I barbeque. I like the leg meat stir fried a lot too- my favorite way with that is the way i posted under the Cookin Corner. 

The hardest thing is that a lot of the buckings are personable and I would rather have pets than butcher them. I keep telling myself that they have a pleasant and healthy life til the end and that just because I know them doesn't mean that they are more worthy that the poor unknown feed lot cow that gets eaten. If I'm going to eat meat- at least I can raise them decently. By the way I have yet to avoid naming them- bad I know. Sometimes it helps that they are rank obnoxious little guys- that is usually the signal to send them off.


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

We have raised both boer and dairy kids for meat and honestly, it all depends upon how you cook the meat. The only difference between our boer and dairy kids is of course, the boers have more meat. You have to cook goat low and slow with a liquid to get the best possible texture. I will say, I do prefer the boer meat to the dairy meat. We usually butcher our wethers at 8 months, by that time the boers are about 90-100 lbs and the dairy kids we usually butcher at a year and a half old.


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## Muddy Creek Farm (Oct 5, 2007)

What do you think it end up costing you per pound of meat?


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

I'm not sure, my brother has that figured out, but I think we charge $6 a lb on the hook for processed goat.


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## Duchesse (Oct 31, 2007)

Some people say they can tell the difference between eating the flesh of a male and a female. They say the meat taste *"rank*" if it's a male due to testosterone and the fact that he pees on himself.

I've heard that bucks wethered early taste different because of the lack of testosterone.

Does lack testosterone and don't pee on themselves but due to eating grass, hay, and grain they taste like goat but don't taste as *"goaty"* :shrug:

The mexicans prepare "cabrito" which I've heard can be as young as 4 weeks. I can only imagine how tender this is. Since it is milk fed it probably taste different from kids who've started eating grain, hay, and grass.


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

That 'goaty' taste that you are referring to is a bucky taste. We butchered 4 bucks(they were prospects that we had kept around) a couple years ago. They were 'ok' but I use that term lightly. Even though we made them into sausage and keep a couple roasts, the meat still tasted like a buck smelled. So we now wether all unreserved bucks. That is the main reason why you wether bucks, for better meat quality. I don't know if its testosterone alone, but they have so many hormones raging when they are in rut so its hard saying.

I've heard people say that bucks grow faster than wethers. I really don't think its true. We've had bucks and wethers growing side by side and they always ended up about the same, wethers tasted better of course  These are all boers I am talking about, the dairy kids automatically get wethered.

As far as cabrito goes, cabrito is actually an older goat, usually 8 months to 2 years old. There is a name for young kid, but I cannot think of it right now. I've never had young kids, we try and grow them out before we butcher them.


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

As I mentioned, I don't wether but I don't wait too long either- when they start getting bucky in their actions, they leave. The oldest I have done is 6 mos. I have never had a bucky taste to mine.

Also- I do not cook slowly - I treat it like lamb and fry, broil and bake and it has been as tender as any other meat.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Hmm...I always thot that techinically cabrito was a kid still nursing!! I guess that term is used pretty loosley.
We have never had bucky tasting meat...the oldest we let them go is 5-6mos and so far we have not casterated them. Some ethnic communities prefer the older buck tasting meat. 
With no facts to back this up, I believe it is a myth that non casterated males & intact ones grow any better/faster than the other.
We raise Boers and a few Nubians. Meat from either is pretty much non distinquishable. 
Chevon DOES need to be cooked either hot & fast (which I have not had success with) or long & slow with plenty of liquid.


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## Duchesse (Oct 31, 2007)

I heard that *"cabrito"* meaning little goat in spanish is a *milk fed kid*.

It becomes "chevon" they are weaned and the main diet consist of forage, hay, and grain.

It seems the diet has quite a bit to do with the taste of the meat according to the mexicans.

According to the Jamaicans it's the testosterone and the pissing on himself.

Ah, well. I guess it's like the chicken and the egg.


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

Sorry, my mistake  I had a headache last night and couldn't think, I looked in my spanish dictionary and cabrito is kid goat  Seems to be though that I though that older goat has a name like cabrito.

the more I think about it, we let our kids nurse on their moms for at least 6 months, but during those 6 months they also get hay, graze and grain as well as milk. Never noticed a different taste in the meat, the youngest I've eaten a goat is 8 months.

Oh, and Nancy, I wanted to thank you for all the recipes that you used to post on GW. Everytime you posted I'd have my mom read it  She's a big fan of your recipes  Oh, she did figure out a really good trick for goat meat. If you soak it in a brine for 24-72 hours before cooking it(you can cook it in the brine too), it makes the meat _divine_. The brine is 8 cups of water, 1/4 cup kosher salt, and 1/4 cup sugar, maple syrup(the real stuff) or molasses. Molasses gives it a really bodl flavor


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Aww shucks..thank you Sandy!

I tried brining once but it was too salty. Will have to try your moms recipe!

Heres another one, cna't remember if itwas on GW or not. It is adapted from Gail Bowman's "Rasing Meat Goats for Profit" whatever that word means! :roll: 

You have to adjust the liquid so it covers the meat, whether a few chops or to feed a crowd.

19oz bottle of your fave bbq sauce (I used Jack Daniels Original)
part of a bottle of Dr Pepper
several shakes of tobasco
the crowning glory; a few splashes whiskey.

Throw all into dutch oven, stir enough to blend.

Lay your chops or steaks up to 2 deep, cover and bake for 2hrs at 300.

I made this for a bbq we hosted. Out butcher made several trips to keep reloading his plate!


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

Wow that sounds yummy! I'll have to drop that one on my mom :wink:

Oh, and my name is Sarah, Sandy Lane is the farm name. Don't worry, you're not the first person to call me Sandy though  :wink:


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## lacy_94 (Oct 7, 2007)

ok what are yall feeding yall babie boer goats, to get them 80-90 pounds,?? Im not planning on eating them but i have a wether im wanting too show and cant get him to gain wieght fast enough, 
thanks


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

Feed the mothers well, if the moms dont' have enough milk for their babies then the babies won't grow very well. Feed teh babies well to, and when they turn a week old start offering them hay and grain. We feed a mix of oats, barley and BOSS with a little corn to everybody, barley is what makes them milk and grow. We also give them free choice hay and graze.


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

My boys get Mom's milk, any hay they want and what alfafa pellets their moms let them have from the same bowl. Some does will stand aside to let babies eat, some won't. I only creep feed hay.
I think the early size is not height but body mass (not good for dairy?)- mostly genetics I think. That's what Boers were bred to do.


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## Pam B (Oct 15, 2007)

We've butchered Nubian and Boer wethers at anywhere from 8 months to 1 year. I've never been able to tell any difference in the flavor or texture of them.

We had an Alpine buck that we had butchered at just over 1 year of age. We had wanted to wether him, but several factors happened that prevented that ever happening. When I took him to my processor he didn't want to process him at first because he said that the smell would get into all his equipment and make everything processed for days afterward smell bad. But then he gave the boy a good sniff test and decided that he didn't smell "too" bad. He was very careful during the processing to make sure that the urinary tract was removed without spilling any of the contents. That makes a MAJOR difference in the flavor of the meat. I kept that meat separate from all the other meat in my freezer just in case it tasted stronger than the meat from wethers. But after cooking some I found that it didn't have any different taste to it.

We eat buck venison from deer that we have hunted all the time and it doesn't taste gamey or bucky at all because we are very careful when gutting the deer to keep the urine away from the meat. Being ultra careful when skinning the animal also has an effect on the flavor and smell of the meat. If the hair side of the skin touches the meat it will transfer that urine/stink to the meat. So we make sure that doesn't happen.

As far as texture of the meat I think age has a lot to do with that. The older the goat, no matter if it is a doe, buck or wether, the stringier and tougher the meat is going to be. I think that is true with any animal meat.


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## Duchesse (Oct 31, 2007)

Hey everybody, long time no see. I just got back from sunning in Orlando.

It seems that I was led astray. Forgive me, my ex husband was Jamaican, he was also an "expert" at everything. :ROFL:

So popular opinion is that * any ** breed *of goat can be eaten if procecssed properly and that once the goat is processed no one can really tell whether it is male or female by the taste. The age of the goat in relation to the texture/tenderness is fundamental the younger it is the more tender the meat will be.

When is comes to taste. It's all personal.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

We feed everyone the same around here, a 17.50% protein grain plus all the alfafa they can waste and a handful of BOSS, a good pinch of livestock yeast & loose minerals. They grow very well on it. In additon to being dam raised.
I wish I knew more about the genetic part of growing...some lines grow faster than others. We have had different bucklings from the same dam & sire grow different. One time a little dude never did get up to his full potential...his cousins were all in the 50-80lb range, he dressed out to a whopping 30lb....he was not even close to 50 live.


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