Thread: goat stew differing results, any ideas ?

Originally Posted by 40mm

I gave some boned and diced goat to a mates wife and she hassled me for taking the bones out!

I reckon, bone it all out, put meat aside.
Then cleaver the bones etc up into bits, put em in a giant 'tea bag' or something like that to prevent the small fragments of bone getting into the stew.
Chuck the tea bag in the pot with the rest of the stew and cook it.
Pull the bag out before dishing up.

I cook a lot of venison and goat stews, and the best cut of all is the shanks, but not whole.
I freeze them as a whole shank. Then just before cooking, I remove the shank(s) from the freezer and use the bone saw and cut them into 3/4" disks. Using the hand saw I find the easiest way to do this is to hold the end of the shank bone in the bench vice for stability, and cut straight through the frozen meat and bone. Make sure you do it immediately after taking it out of the freezer.
Then I use a big cast iron Potjie pot and brown the meat while it is still frozen - allows you to get a really good sear without cooking the meat.
Remove the meat from the pot, brown some bacon and onion, then throw the meat back into the pot and add:
1 cup home made mead (beer will do)
1 tbl spoon apple cider vinegar per 1kg meat
1x beef oxo cube
1x vegetable oxo cube
a coating of Cape Spice Braai seasoning (don't know how much because I just shake it in from the bottle)
curry for colour and taste (don't know how much because i just sprinkle it on top from the container)
a hand full of raisins
a couple of diced carrots
salt and pepper to taste
enough water so you can just see it through the meat

I let it slow simmer with the lid on for about three hours until tender. About half an hour before cooking is done, I will add additional vegies if doing so, so that they hold together rather than turning to mush, and add some thickening.
For really tender results, start the cook at lunch time. Once it is cooked, turn it off and just leave the stew to sit. If you have a nice heavy cast iron pot, it will hold the temp in it for another hour or so which will help with tenderness, then reheat just before serving.

The bones will be in large pieces and you just serve them up on the plate. People can choose to eat the marrow or leave it be. The stew has already benefited from the exposed marrow.
@dannyb I suspect the issue between the two stews is purely temp and time. Beer docent really tenderise meat.
That said, my brother did a trial using Sprite to marinate some venison that was noticeable stronger in smell and it completely removed the staginess.