A Whole Goat!

Hey everyone - I'm a long-time reader who often refers to the wonderful recipe index here to guide his cooking experiments, but I've just now decided to get an account.

I'm an Oak Park native, currently studying in Conway, AR. Certainly, being far from all the wonderful markets and ingredients of a world city has limited what I can do, but on the other hand, being in the South has given me renewed appreciation for uniquely "American" cuisine.

Anyway, I come to you with a major project. This year, I live in a house/DIY space, and we're putting together a pre-SXSW music festival in early-mid March. We need to raise money to cover the guarantees we're paying the more famous acts, so when a friend approached me and told me she could get a whole farm-raised goat, slaughtered and butchered, for $60, I realized I had an excellent fundraising opportunity on my hands. I gathered a few like-minded friends, and a week later, the idea for the goat cook-off was born.

So the idea is: two teams (I'm heading one of them) split a whole goat and do with it what we can. The dinner is on March 11. The problem is, even though each of us have done our fair share of cooking, neither of us really knows what we're doing when it comes to entire goats.

I'm going down to Hot Springs, AR on Wednesday to meet the guy who's providing us with the goat. I don't really know what to look for, though - obviously I'm going to be sure they don't grind up all the good cuts, but aside from that, I don't know anything. And I haven't even started on recipes. Are there any goat-savvy LTHers that could help me out?

How big is the goat you're buying? Goats have less meat on them than most other animals people butcher at home (i.e sheep) and your best best to get the most meat off of it is to braise or stew some of the cuts.

The back legs will be the biggest pieces, and you should just roast or braise each leg whole. Boning, butterflying, and stuffing is also a great thing to do with them.

The front legs have less meat on them, and really should be used in a stew so you can get the meat off it. The "clod" meat from the shoulder should be treated in a similar fashion. I tried smoking a goat clod once, and while it was OK it didn't have nearly as much fat as a beef clod and was a bit dry, I think a stew or braise would be the best way to go for those cuts.

There will be a small tenderloin under the spine that comes out very easily. This meat is the best for any hot fire grilling and cooking, I've used it for kabobs a few times. This is not a big cut of meat, so you may want to think up an appetizer of some sort so everyone can get a taste of it.

The side should be cut into 4 pieces - the loin, the rack, the tip/flank, and the clod/breast. The clod/breast and tip/flank are best braised or stewed. The ribs and loin can be roasted or smoked.

I've cut up a few goats, but for the last few years I've just been roasting them whole. I usually buy smaller goats, so the effort of butchering it doesn't result in a lot of meat. Hope that helps!

Chop that small tenderloin up with a bit of shoulder fat and make a tartare or kibbe out of it - great eating.