Our Guide to Goat

by Robert Gooch October 16 2018

Goat is a staple meat around the world yet rarely makes it on to British plates. If you’d like to give it a go, follow our cooking tips to discover for yourself just how good goat can be.

Goat cuisine

Cooked slowly, goat meat is tender and juicy with a delicious flavour that is most similar to lamb.  Goat stews, curries and soups are guaranteed crowd-pleasers in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Goat is also widely enjoyed slow roasted, barbecued or minced for burgers and other dishes.

In cultures where goat meat is considered a delicacy, it is often the meat of choice for special celebrations. To mark Dashain in Nepal, a feast of dishes is prepared using every edible part of the goat. It is also served to celebrate Easter in parts of Italy, Greece and Portugal.

We’d love to see more people enjoying goat meat in the UK too. Ours is sourced from Andalusian breeds in southern Spain, their native home. Here, they enjoy a natural free-range life in the environment for which they are ideally suited. They are primarily bred for milk and cheese production: the meat we sell is from the male kids or older nanny goats.

Goatober is a month-long awareness campaign to encourage people to eat more goat. It was launched in 2011 by an American working in the goat’s milk industry, who wanted to see fewer male kid goats being routinely euthanised. Erin Fairbanks made it her mission to increase demand for goat meat to reduce this wastage.

Momentum has picked up in the years since that first campaign. In Britain, restaurants around the country add goat dishes to their menus throughout October to give people the chance to discover its incredible flavour.

If you’re concerned about healthy eating, there is another reason to choose goat over other meats. Goat is lower in calories, fat and cholesterol than lamb, beef and chicken, while also containing more iron and protein than these meats.

How to cook goat

As a lean meat, goat is best suited to slow cooking at low temperatures. Don’t be tempted to serve it pink like lamb. Remember, goats are built for a life of tracking up and down hills! We recommend gentle, thorough cooking to tenderise the meat and bring out its full flavour.

Goat leg and shoulder: if you’d like to recreate a Mediterranean feast at home, rub some herbs and spices into a goat leg or shoulder and place in a lidded pot with some onions and white wine. Cook in a slow oven for 3—7 hours, depending on the size of your joint, pan and oven temperature. Add potatoes and carrots during cooking for a complete meal.

Goat chops: these are also tasty and tender slow cooked in sauces. They can be marinated and grilled as well for quicker meals but care must be taken to prevent the meat becoming dry or tough.

Diced goat: if you’d like to make your own incredible Caribbean or African style goat curry, cook diced goat meat (either boneless or on the bone) with onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, hot peppers and curry powder for around 2 hours. Serve with rice and fried plantains.

Minced goat: authentic Indian keema curries are often made with minced goat. This is cooked with a mix of spices, chillies, ginger and onions, and served with rice and parathas. Minced goat can also be transformed into a mouthwatering moussaka or kofta kebabs.

Goat burgers: for a simple introduction to the great flavours of goat meat, why not add some goat burgers to your barbeque? We love them with served with a mint yoghurt sauce.

What’s your favourite way to cook goat? We’d love to see your photos or recommendations! You can share them with us via our Facebook page, Twitter or Instagram.

Our favourite goat recipes