Thread: Goat: Plentiful, Tasty but often Stringy

I've eaten some delicious wild goat. Sometimes they even have a decent amount of fat. I don't mind the billygoat odour and the similar taint in some meat. All goats provide an easily chewable and delicious heart, liver and kidneys (plus brain and tongue).... and about fifty percent of them have testicles which can be really good (I like them peeled, sliced and fried). But most of the goats I've brought home are 'stringy' to some degree.

I've found very young goats to generally be tender. But my hunter-gatherer-conserve-the-stock (and soft) attitude generally means that I will shoot a billy before I will shoot nannies and kids.

Marinating, slow cooking and pressure cooking can help to tenderise the overall structure of the meat, but generally it is still stringy. In other words, the meat can be made to 'fall apart' as they say, but in many cases it is just like rope being reduced to strands. Sinew and connective tissue may become soft, glutinous and delicious, but the tough fibres remain. I haven't done a series of repeated scientific tests, but the front legs may be a bit less stringy than the hind legs.

Up until a couple of years ago we had a big, hungry labrador/huntaway dog. She was not at all fussy about stringy meat, so we had a good relationship that helped to empty the freezer. Now I give excess meat away to other dog owners.

If anybody has found a way to reduce the apparent stringiness in goat, I'd love to read about it. Thanks in advance....

I haven't found a way.

Best option is to just be friends with a Fijian or Indian. Or anyone who's cuisine where they come from uses a lot of goat.

I just skin it and bone the legs off the chest.

And give it to them. Magically the next day I get a load of curry.

Awesome

I generally slow cook them in plenty of liquid the same as I would anything else.
I cant say I find them any "stringier" than anything else but I only keep young animals to eat.

get a goat leg. cover in yoghurt then wrap in streaky bacon. very long roast preferably over really smokey charcoal

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

I haven't found a way.

Best option is to just be friends with a Fijian or Indian. Or anyone who's cuisine where they come from uses a lot of goat.

I just skin it and bone the legs off the chest.

And give it to them. Magically the next day I get a load of curry.

Awesome

Yes, i've found this too. get in with an indian person, they make the best curry from goats. Mine comes back with bahjis and other awesome indian food too.

I've not found them to be stringy to be honest. best way is to get an indian friend to curry them. I feed the billy's to my dog, she loves it, I can't stand that manky billy smell. Nannies and kids are the best, nice and tender

Try this recipe. It got devoured in seconds at friday drinks at work

https://www.thekitchn.com/goat-tacos-post-79454

it's pretty damn good.

Adding some vinegar to a dish will often help tenderise meat. Vinegar + sugar = sweet and sour. I have often soaked rabbit in fresh water with a splash or two of vinegar. Whitens the meat and tenderises same.

Originally Posted by Ingrid 51

Adding some vinegar to a dish will often help tenderise meat. Vinegar + sugar = sweet and sour. I have often soaked rabbit in fresh water with a splash or two of vinegar. Whitens the meat and tenderises same.

baking soda and water soak is what is used in allot of restaurants to tenderize meat, also kiwifruit (yuch!!!) pulp works a treat but dont use it too long as it will dissolve the meat into mush ( just think what it does to your stomach)

The trusty old slow cooker/crock pot solves that problem

How long are you hanging / ageing the carcase before bagging and freezing ? I would go 10 days in a chiller or fridge for a start.
Next thing if you want to make good meat stringy then cook it at too high a temperature.
Even with dishes where the cooking takes place in liquid meat can still become dried out if the cooking liquid is at a boil. It should only simmer. Just as some people can make corned beef stringy by cooking too hot.
And good one re eating the billy goat balls HaHa

The trick we use is to marinade the meat before cooking for at least 24 hours, with the marinade sauce being a vinegar-based curry sauce. Works really really well, the dish is then slow cooked.

Fast cooked goat is generally not very successful, that's what I found.

Did my last one for 8 hours in the crock pot on low........used 2 cups of chicken stock

And a sachet of "Asian Home Gourmet, Indian meat curry Rogan josh"

Used the hot one .......awesome....if I say so myself.....

Nothing beats the 40°C day grade system...

Thank you for all the comments, suggestions and recipes. That 40 C ageing formula was particularly interesting. I look forward to trying your ideas.

I started to think about not wasting the testicles after doing a job for an Egyptian guy who suggested it. His wife/partner said that the men eat them because they believe that it makes them more 'active'. Never noticed a difference myself.

I like to hang meat before I freeze it nowadays. I don't have a chiller, and we have a pathetically small fridge.... but I do have a shed with a veranda roof on the shady side. I protect the meat from insects and dust with cotton sheets and pillowslips. I've sewn some sheets to form tubes. Dunno if it really makes a difference, but I will often hang a carcass from the aitch bone (pelvis) because I once read that hanging from the back legs can contribute to the meat being tough.

Here are a couple of pigs hanging in my 'chiller'...

mate you are supposed to split the pelvis open so meat can cool easier....helps prevent bone taint.
as for stringyness...carve across grain just like ringing a log with chainsaw....your teeth do the splitting bit LOL. young and tender works for many things....goats for eating is one.