Goat meat

“ Goats are bred in larger numbers than sheep in the Central Provinces, being more commonly used for food and sacrifices, while they are also valuable for their manure. Any Hindu who thinks an animal sacrifice requisite, and objects to a fowl as unclean, will choose a goat; and the animal after being sacrificed provides a feast for the worshippers, his head being the perquisite of the officiating priest. Muhammadans and most castes of Hindus will eat goat’s meat when they can afford it. ”

“ Young meat is richer in soluble albumen and poorer in fibrine and fat than the matured flesh of the same animal. The flesh of the goat contains hircic acid, which renders it almost uneatable, but this substance is either altogether absent from, or present but in minute proportion in, the well-flavored meat of the kid. The flesh of game contains abundance of osmazome, a substance which is somewhat deficient in that of the domestic fowl. ”

“ American farmers currently raise roughly 250,000 of these hardy animals, which can thrive even in harsh areas and have a long association with our country. Columbus and Cook and other famed explorers carried dairy goats aboard their ships for milk and meat, and pioneers and settlers transported them to every part of our land.
Dairy goat products are increasingly popular as items for export and for domestic use. The number of producers of goat cheese, or Chevre, is rising. An extraordinary variety of American-made goat cheeses is available, as are goat milk, ice cream, and yogurt. ”

“ Hunters will know what ample supply this means in animals much larger than the goat. This specimen was, my most companionable guide told me, of good but not supreme size. We carried home none of the meat. The flesh of the grown-up goat cannot be eaten with much pleasure; but later, for the sake of a complete set of specimens, I shot a kid; and the flesh of this we ate with entire satisfaction for our Thanksgiving dinner. ”

“ They even become accustomed to a very sad lack of variety in the matter of meat. From one year's end to another merino mutton and Angora goat are almost unchangingly the order of the day; the bill of fare being varied by beef only on those rare occasions, during the very coldest weather, when one of the farmers—having ascertained beforehand that a sufficient number of neighbours are willing to share the meat—is enterprising enough to slaughter an ox. But the difficulties of keeping meat are such that sheep and goats are generally found to be quite large enough ”

“ The mutton usually grows on a goat, and is also tough, which, I suppose, accounts in part for the eternal chicken taking so prominent a place in the day’s menu. Tough meat, by the way, can be much improved by wrapping the joint in paw-paw leaves for an hour or two; if left too long it will decay altogether, so personal supervision is necessary—the cook does not profess to understand such faddy nonsense! Turkeys can be reared in the compound quite easily, also ducks ”

“ Frank, by the way, loves goat cheese. 1 whole roaster breast salt and ground pepper to taste 6 ounces mild creamy goat cheese or cream cheese, softened 1 medium carrot, coarsely grated 1 small zucchini, unpeeled and coarsely grated 1/4 cup snipped fresh or frozen chives 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried 1 tablespoon vegetable oil Preheat oven to 375o F. Working from the top of the breast use finger tips to carefully loosen the skin from the meat on the breast to form a pocket. ”

“ They love to be tethered in places where they find bushes to nibble. A deserted brick-field, with plenty of broken drain-tiles, rubbish-heaps, and weeds, pleases them still better. Almost any kind of food seems to suit them. Not even the pig has so varied a diet as the goat; it consumes and converts into milk not only great quantities of garden stuff which would otherwise be wasted, but also, thanks to its love for eating twigs and shoots, it enjoys the prunings and loppings of bushes and trees. In the Mont Dore district of France the goats are fed on oatmeal porridge. ”

“ From time to time the old maquis is burnt, but it is never long before new shoots spring up, which are more suitable for food than the old dry branches, though the goat is a true mountain animal, and, unlike the sheep, will eat practically anything.
Goat’s milk is used in making a soft white cheese called broccio or brôche, which is one of the specialities of the island, and is obtainable everywhere. When sprinkled over with sugar it is a most delicious and refreshing dish. The peasant, to increase the flavour, is fond of adding a little cognac. About May the goats are shorn, just like sheep. ”

“ Parings and roots should be washed; if you expect goats to eat swill you deserve to be disappointed. Dirty carrots, rotten apples, sour or mouldy refuse do not tempt a self-respecting pig; much less an Angora. Oats in the sheaf are very good fodder for them. Grain is not required if clover hay, alfalfa, or cowpea stubble is plentiful. Too much grain makes a lazy goat and a lazy goat will not produce a handsome fleece. Bran may be fed for a change, and a little cotton seed or corn may be given, but sparingly. ”

“ But there are seldom trees on commons, except such as are too large to be injured by goats; and I can see no reason against keeping a goat where a cow cannot be kept. Nothing is so hardy; nothing is so little nice as to its food. Goats will pick peelings out of the kennel and eat them. They will eat mouldy bread or biscuit; fusty hay, and almost rotten straw; furze-bushes, heath-thistles; and, indeed, what will they not eat, when they will make a hearty meal on paper, brown or white, printed on or not printed on, and give milk all the while! They will lie in any dog-hole. ”

“ The goats are much used for their milk. The cow is indeed used, and possibly its milk is considered the best, but the goat, as the more thrifty animal, is most easily kept, and suits the spare vegetation which is found on the mountains. They are seen in considerable numbers, and some of them have uncommonly long ears, which are of a speckled whitish colour, and hang down from eight to twelve inches. ”

“ On feast days they eat some flesh, half-cooked, without bread or salt, for that is their custom. They clothe themselves, according to their habit, with tight trousers and short loose coats of very coarse goat's hair. ”

“ Those beautiful little tame cattle, with their short horns, and long ears, and mouse-coloured skin, with all the agility of a goat, and all the gentleness of domesticity—you meet them feeding in places where your mule looks thoughtfully to his footing. And then follows perhaps a peasant girl in her picturesque cloak made of the undressed fur of the goat and her round hat of thickly plaited straw, calling after them in that high sing-song note, which forms the basis of what is called Swiss music. ”

“ The sheep, while preserving its hardy habits in some districts, as on Exmoor, in Wales, and the Highlands, adapts itself to richer food, and acquires the habits as well as the digestion of domestication. The goat remains, as in old days, the {232}enemy of trees, inquisitive, omnivorous, pugnacious. It is unsuited for the settled life of the English farm. Rich pasture makes it ill, and a good clay soil, on which cattle grow fat, kills it. ”

“ These animals are found wild in many of the mountainous countries of the European continent, of Africa, Persia, and India.
In many parts of Europe the goat is an animal essentially serviceable to the necessities and the comforts of mankind; affording even during its life, though fed on the most barren and uncultivated grounds, an abundant supply of milk and cheese.
Goats' milk is not only considered to be thicker, but to have a richer flavour than that of the cow; and, in some situations, especially on ship-board, where the goat thrives better than any other animal, it is peculiarly valuable. ”

“ He who wishes to form a flock of goats should consider in choosing them: first of all that they are of an age capable of breeding, and that for some time to come, for a tiro is more useful for that purpose than a veteran. As to conformation, see to it that they are strong and large, with a smooth body and thick coat: but beware of the short haired goat, for there are both kinds. The she goat should have two excrescences, like little teats, hanging under the muzzle: those which have them are fecund: [124] the larger the udder the more milk and butter fat she will yield. ”

“ We may here remark, that of late years some doubts have arisen, and not without foundation, respecting the wholesomeness of goats' milk, hitherto believed to be, in many respects, superior even to that of the cow. The goat was much venerated by the ancient Egyptians, and never sacrificed, because Pan was represented with the legs and feet of that animal, but the Greeks destroyed it on account of its cropping the vines. ”

“ Of this animal there are many species, some wild and some domestic. They seem to be a link between the sheep and antelope, and to partake of the qualities of both. In some European countries, goat's milk is used, by the poor, as a substitute for that of the cow. ”

“ Fresh hides stripped from the rank he-goat, besmeared inside as well as out with old tallow and strong bark tan, filled from an impure well at Sagállo, tossed, tumbled, and shaken during two entire nights on a camel’s back, and brewed during the same number of intervening days under a strong distilling heat—poured out an amalgamation of pottage of which the individual ingredients of goat’s hair, rancid mutton fat, astringent bark, and putrid water, were not to be distinguished. ”

“ It is most excellent; and in spite of the black, dirty looking grass baskets in which they keep it, we never could resist the cool refreshing draught. They believe that if the milk of a cow or goat is drunk in its natural state, the animal will at once cease to give any more. ”

“ The blood and milk are then shaken together in long gourds. Certainly the race seems to thrive on this strange diet. Only rarely, on ceremonial occasions or when transportation is difficult, do they eat mutton or goat flesh, but never beef. ”

“ Whether considered in reference to food, to clothing, or to sacrifice, the Goat was scarcely a less important animal than the sheep. It was especially valuable in such a country as Palestine, in which the soil and the climate vary so much according to the locality. Upon the large fertile plains the sheep are bred in vast flocks, the rich and succulent grass being exactly to their taste; while in the hilly and craggy districts the Goats abound, and delight in browsing upon the scanty herbage that grows upon the mountain-side. ”

“ Goats only are in abundance, of animals. The ordinary food of the people is bazeen, a sort of boiled flour pudding, with a little high-seasoned herbal sauce, and sometimes a little oil or mutton fat poured on. It is generally made of barley-meal, but sometimes flour. This is the supper and principal meal of the day. As a breakfast, a little milk is drank, or a few dates with a bit of bread is eaten. The rule of these mountaineers is, indeed, not to eat meat, though some of them have flocks of sheep. ”

“ The Goat as a Source of Milk Supply.—The milk goat is especially useful to those who desire a smaller quantity of milk than that produced by a cow and where the space is inadequate for keeping a larger milk-producing animal. In composition, goat’s milk closely resembles that of the cow, the butter fat ranging from 3.2 per cent to 4.4 per cent with total solids of nearly 12 per cent. ”

“ Goats may be successfully fed with the same rations as the dairy cow. Although they consume only about one-seventh as much feed as the cow, the common impression that the goat can produce milk on practically no feed is erroneous. A ration for winter feeding, suggested by the United States Department of Agriculture, consists of 2 pounds of alfalfa or clover hay, 11⁄2 pounds of silage or roots and from 1 to 2 pounds of a concentrated grain ration, composed of 100 pounds of corn, 100 pounds of oats, 50 pounds of bran and 25 pounds of [Pg 168] linseed meal. ”

“ On the other hand, the milk of the ass is poor in quality, and probably on this account it is more readily assimilated by those of weak digestion, to whom it is sometimes recommended. Goats' milk is richer than either cow or human milk, and its nourishing properties are well known. The goat is usually free from tuberculosis and other diseases which affect the cow, and its milk is therefore a very safe article to use. ”

“ The statement by James Bruce respecting the cutting of steaks from a live cow has frequently been called in question, but there can be no doubt that Bruce actually saw what he narrates. Mutton and goat’s flesh are the meats most eaten: pork is avoided on religious grounds, and the hare is never touched, possibly, as in other countries, from superstition. Many forms of game are forbidden ”

“ The Goat, next to the cow and the sheep, has been always reckoned, especially in ancient and patriarchal times, the most useful domestic animal. Its milk is sweet, nourishing, and medicinal, and better adapted for persons of weak digestion than that of the cow, as it is not so apt to curdle on the stomach. The female has generally two young ones at a time, which are called kids. ”

“ If the owner should desire to fatten a she-goat, he ought to tie up the udders so tightly that the milk cannot come into them, and the nourishment is therefore converted into fat instead of milk. Also, he should take care to keep his Goats away from the place where bread is being made, as they are very fond of the unbaked dough, and always die if they eat it. ”