One of my summer goals was to smoke a goat. I finally got the chance this weekend. Turned out pretty well. Excellent flavor though the meat had a bit more chew than I would like. Next time I will try an overnight marinade (I do a lamb leg marinated in greek yogurt with mint and cumin that is great) and/or apply the texas crutch earlier in the cooking process so that it has a chance to braise a bit in the foil. Here is my story (with photos!)
Bought half a goat at my local carniceria (about 10 lbs). The butcher cut it down for me using the big saw, into pieces that were roughly two inches thick and 10 long. He cut across the ribs. It turned out to be a lot of goat so I used half of that for my first run.
I applied a rub with salt and pepper, cumin, mustard, cardomom, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, guajillo and chipotle pepper. Also cut thin slices here and there and stuffed em with sliced garlic.
Then on the WSM with a bit of apple and hickory chunks. Temp started out hot (about 270) but after 30 minutes I got it down to the 225-250 range, where is stayed the rest of the cook. I had my thermometer probe in the biggest piece. Temp steadily climbed to about 165, then it hit a stall at about the 1 hour mark. I didn't realize goat stalled but why not? At 3.5 hours they were still mid stall and had developed a meteorite bark. I wrapped them individually in foil with a bit of beer. Temp started climbing again and I took them off at internal temp 205 degrees (I was actually hoping to take them off at 195 but didn't make it downstairs in time). They looked like this. Little goat asteroids.
They didn't pull apart so I attacked the parts with a knife and got some nice sliced pieces. Good looking pink smoke rings.
Then served with some home made pita bread (Mrs. Meat-2's contribution), stewed eggplant and chickpeas over wild rice, and a citrus salad. On the side I made a harissa (hot) and yogurt sauce with mint, lemon juice and some more of the spice rub (cool). Very tasty. Goat was no more gamey than a good piece of lamb. Smoke flavor was very pronounced but matched the game taste nicely. As I said, next time a bit of marinade and earlier crutching will hopefully create a more tender product but for a first try I'm pretty satisfied.
Bought half a goat at my local carniceria (about 10 lbs). The butcher cut it down for me using the big saw, into pieces that were roughly two inches thick and 10 long. He cut across the ribs. It turned out to be a lot of goat so I used half of that for my first run.
I applied a rub with salt and pepper, cumin, mustard, cardomom, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, guajillo and chipotle pepper. Also cut thin slices here and there and stuffed em with sliced garlic.
Then on the WSM with a bit of apple and hickory chunks. Temp started out hot (about 270) but after 30 minutes I got it down to the 225-250 range, where is stayed the rest of the cook. I had my thermometer probe in the biggest piece. Temp steadily climbed to about 165, then it hit a stall at about the 1 hour mark. I didn't realize goat stalled but why not? At 3.5 hours they were still mid stall and had developed a meteorite bark. I wrapped them individually in foil with a bit of beer. Temp started climbing again and I took them off at internal temp 205 degrees (I was actually hoping to take them off at 195 but didn't make it downstairs in time). They looked like this. Little goat asteroids.
They didn't pull apart so I attacked the parts with a knife and got some nice sliced pieces. Good looking pink smoke rings.
Then served with some home made pita bread (Mrs. Meat-2's contribution), stewed eggplant and chickpeas over wild rice, and a citrus salad. On the side I made a harissa (hot) and yogurt sauce with mint, lemon juice and some more of the spice rub (cool). Very tasty. Goat was no more gamey than a good piece of lamb. Smoke flavor was very pronounced but matched the game taste nicely. As I said, next time a bit of marinade and earlier crutching will hopefully create a more tender product but for a first try I'm pretty satisfied.
Attached Files
Goat frequently. I have also made South Asian (Indo/Pak) Bhuna Goat (Bhuna is actually a cooking style). Goat is often/usually referred to as mutton in South Asian recipes. I had to get used to the fact that "mutton" meant goat, not mature sheep meat.
Comment