I actually like goat meat. I find it milder than lamb and it tastes good. Lani, from Waimalu Valley Ranch, dropped off some for us to try. The butchering reminded me of my days at Lutece in NYC. Looking back, doing whole baby lambs every day, whole saddles of veal and lamb, legs of veal and rabbits really gave me a better foundation and respect for each part of the animal. Since I took them apart, I knew what each part was meant for and what preparations were best suited to the piece.
Today I showed Sonny how to "steam" certain parts of the goat. Andrew took one apart and Anicea got one of the legs and will make a curry for us. Sonny has goat soup on the stove; it reminds me of Daryl on Kauai and his goat soup.
Butchering is becoming a lost art for the majority of cooks but we are seeing a resurgence. Some of the new generation of cooks are using the whole animal and are into charcuterie (sausage making). That’s good. For some new cooks, all they have to do is invest in good pair of scissors to cut open the already-proportioned bag of steak---not good.
~AW