Ian Wilkes and I each got a whole goat through the Bay Area Meat CSA, and I proposed butchering them ourselves. I didn't want all those whole muscles cut up into little chops and such. I wanted to decide what to do with every part of the animal. Ian agreed, with surprisingly little reluctance.
Julie Rossotti, of Rossotti Ranch, delivered the goats last Wednesday, and hefted one of them up a couple floors to my apartment while I got the other one. Then Ian came over (which was the first time we'd met), and we started the butchering. I used my skills from Ryan Farr's whole-pig butchering class, combined with a few online tutorials on lamb butchering (lambs and goats are pretty much identical from a butchery standpoint).
Breaking down the two goats took 3-4 hours, at which point Ian left with his goat's parts all cut up in a cooler. I spent another couple hours cleaning up the various cuts, butterflying some of the leg meat, rolling, and tying, and then spent another 2 hours or so making goat merguez (which is ridiculously delicious). The racks and merguez were served at Lazy Bear on Saturday night.
100% grass-fed goat from Tony and Julie at Rossotti Ranch.
The two goats stayed on ice in the bathtub until we got to them.
Whole goat laid out across three cutting boards.
Ian taking off a neck, then shoulders.
1) Shanks bagged with salt and pepper, olive oil, and lemon thyme, later cooked sous vide 12 hours @ 165F. 2) Rack of goat, sous vide at 140F for 45 minutes, then finished off in a hot saute pan with some goat fat. 3) Goat merguez, poached for one hour at 150F, then chilled and later browned in a saute pan with olive oil, cut into pieces, and topped with mint and a slow-cooked Soul Food Farms egg.
Posted by Barzelay on 2009/09/21 @ 13:45 | Comments (4) | Lazy Bear, Meat
Comments
I've read that using fresh herbs in SV is very tricky because the flavors tend to get really concentrated and even fouls (bitter). What has been your experience with this? That looks like a healthy dose of thyme, for example.
Posted by: sygyzy at September 21, 2009 2:35 PM
Yeah, I've read that. Thomas Keller apparently no longer includes herbs or spices in sous vide bags without first wrapping them in cheesecloth, because he says that otherwise it creates intensely localized flavor on the proteins. In my experience, there's been no trouble including herbs, but I have gotten weird results from garlic. When I eat these shanks I will focus on the herb issue and see if I can detect any off flavors.
Posted by: Barzelay at September 21, 2009 2:42 PM
Greetings from Sydney Australia.
I've had no problem using fresh herbs - usually thyme or sage. Both work very well with delicate flavoured meats like veal or young pork. I agree that garlic can be a problem and use as little as half a clove when using for Sous Vide.
I find that garlic is best crushed and mixed into a liquid marinade rather than leaving it in large chunks.
I like the idea of SV cooking the sausages. I hadn't thought of doing that. How do they work out?
Cheers,
Peter.
Posted by: Peter Black at September 22, 2009 2:35 PM
Peter, thanks for the tips. The sous vide sausages work well. The point is just to make sure they're cooked through so I don't have to worry about anything but the sear at the time of service. Same as steaming or boiling the sausages before grilling.
Posted by: Barzelay at January 27, 2010 1:05 PM