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....