Goat and Kid

It seems to me a pity that when we have a good source of alternative meat, which is within the bounds of the culturally acceptable, we shy away from it and do not eat goat meat more often.

Most of the kid and goat available comes from young billy goats culled from milking herds. It is a pale, delicate, slightly gelatinous meat that might even be called bland without the addition of plenty of onions, herbs and spices. The meat from a fully mature animal is another matter altogether, tender and full of flavour. Although I have cooked and enjoyed dishes using young kid goat, I have only in recent years had the opportunity to cook the mature meat. My first experience with it brought home the importance of hanging meat properly. The joint I had came from an 18-month-old animal that had been slaughtered 9 days previously. I kept it in the refrigerator, loosely but carefully wrapped, for another 5 days. Twice I wiped it over with a cloth dipped in sherry vinegar. There was probably no need to do this, but some folk memory made it feel right to freshen and sweeten the meat in this way. By the time I cooked the meat, it was perfectly hung.