Speaking of meat

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Do those of you who use the goat meat butcher your own or have it done? How economical is it to have someone else butcher your goats for you? Also, how do you have the meat cut up, and how do you use it?

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), January 21, 2002

Answers

Mary we send our to the processing plant but I will say it is high. We got two saanen wethers butchered a couple of weeks ago and got it ground . The two of them cost almost seventy dollars and by the time they took the bones out we had some very expensive hamburger meat. This was the first time I had used this place and they were higher than where we had taken them before. They charged just a flat fee. The other place we used charged a kill fee plus 32 cents per pound hanging wieght. We've "Talked about" butchering our own and really have a hard time with it even though we do chickens and rabbits, and raising our own food is very important to us. Problem is I don't make pets out of my chickens and rabbits and I just love my goats so much and I'm a wimp. Takes me awhile before I will eat it.

-- sherry (chickadee259@yahoo.com), January 21, 2002.

We butcher the meat kids ourselves. It isn't much harder than doing a large rabbit, just a little bigger. We do this when they are about 2 months old, the meat is very tender and good. Cook it just as you would lamb. If I was going to butcher older does, I would probably send them to the butcher. It would be hard (emotionally) to do them myself. A friend here had her older does made into some of the best sausage I've ever tasted.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 22, 2002.

We butcher ourselves. The loin is cut off and put into a ziplock baggie, I cut it into small pieces, pound it flat and quickly chicken fry it, we usually save at least one good size leg for barbeque but take all the rest off the bone for ground meat. I use it in any recipe that calls for ground meat, and also use it to make sausage. The heads are frozen after skinning, and I trade them for tamales. If I want a steak or roast I buy beef. Goat has so little fat, though I do love it barbequed and so tender you can fork it off the bone, use all the rest shredded for sandwiches or tacos, but I do not enjoy it baked in the oven, or grilled. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 22, 2002.

Okay Vicki,

Explain the technique used to trade a frozen goat heat for a tamale? I am assuming that this is something unique to your area?

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), January 23, 2002.


:) That's cute! Many of my meat buyers were Mexican, I sell very little meat anymore, but have not lost them as friends, and some come up just to get my jalapeno's, they grow like squash and cucumbers here! So when we butcher we skin and freeze the heads of all the goats, even those of which are for other people who would normally throw them away. They boil the meat down off the heads, minus only the eyeballs, and their wives make the most wonderful tamales. The fruit ones for the holidays leave alot to be desired, I guess its like fruit cake or mincemeat pie for us! But the regular tamales are to die for, and oddly enough though I love these homemade ones, I do not like the ones in resturants, perpahs the mass production? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 23, 2002.


I was tester for a one day milk test, where they killed, dressed and barbqued a goat. It took tow grown men and a hoist for engines a couple of hours to kill, dress and cut up the meat. They had very sharp knives that were resharpened during the process. The meat was cut into 6 large peices for the covered smoker, so not a lot of time was spent cuting it up. After watching some of this, I saw how much work this was and knew I would pay to have mine processed.These were two big guys that knew what the were doing and it still took a long time. There islittle chance my daughter and I would even think of doing this on any but the youngest of buck kids. Janet Harris

-- Janet Harris (darkhorseplacesc@yahoo.com), December 22, 2002.

I have butchered goats all by myself; and I am a small woman. Don't think I've done anything larger than about 4 months old alone, but you could if I had a come along to hoist the goat up into the tree. After that the rest is work, but not too hard.

How I cut it up- we kill ours young, the flavor is better then. After skinning and gutting, the rear legs are roasts, the ribs get BBQ'd, the front legs (shanks) get boned out for stew. The rest- neck, shoulder, back, etc, gets boned out for stew or ground goat hamburger. Goatburger is really good if you mix Greek type herds with it (oregano, garlic, basil, dill, and a little mint, pepper and salt). I use the same herbs, minus the mint, for goat stews, with a tomato base.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), December 24, 2002.


I USUALLY SELL ALL OF MY GOATS LIVE AND THE CUSTOMERS DO ALL THE BUTCHERING. SOME OF THE OLDER CUSTOMERS KILL THE GOATS AT MY HOUSE AND I GIVE THEM A HAND. ALL OF THE BUYERS KILL THE GOATS WITH A KNIFE IN THE JUGGLER AND BLEED THEM TO DEATH THEN THEY SLIT A HOLE IN THE BACK LEG AND BLOW AIR UP UNDER THE HIDE WITH AN AIRCOMPRESSOR OR GARDEN HOSE AND THERE MOUTH. THE BLOW AIR IN THE GOAT UNTILL IT IS ALMOST COMPLETELY ROUND. THEN THE GOATS HIDE IS SKINNED OF THE BACK LEGS AND IT IS HUNG. THE HIDE WILL JUST PULL OF THEN, AND THEN IT IS GUTTED. AND EVERYONE CUTS THERE MEAT UP A LITTLE DIFFERENT. MOST OF THE BUYERS ARE MORE INTERESTED IN THE INTERNAL ORGANS, HEART, LIVER, TRIPE,INTESTINS, ETC. THEN THE MEAT.

-- JEREMY THOMLINSON (THOMLINSON_51@HOTMAIL.COM), December 18, 2004.

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