The FOOD Topic.

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How to cook and info on Cabrito! (or goatlings)



For more than twenty years, the central Texas town of Brady has staged the World Championship Barbecue Goat Cook-off on Labor Day weekend. Cabrito is a delicacy that has its ardent admirers--and many detractors. To those who have failed to see the merit in a crunchy yet tender piece of goat meat, the blame must be placed squarely on the way it's been cooked and on the fact that the goat you got probably wasn't a ten-to-eighteen-pound, suckling kid slaughtered at thirty to forty days of age. Older goat is often passed off as cabrito, but once they start browsing on grass, goats develop an unmistakable mutton flavor. They are also tough. The best time to get real cabrito is May through October. After October, you should be skeptical.

Cooking your own cabrito can be real simple if you want to dig a hole in your backyard, as purists insist. All you need is a three-foot-deep pit with a mesquite or oak fire raging in it. Wrap a skinned cabrito in a gunny sack bound with wire and set the meat in the pit. Cover it with dirt to seal in the heat and let it cook all day. The cabrito will be smoke-seasoned and tender by nightfall. Apartment-dwellers might want to opt for the kitchen method of cooking cabrito: place half a cabrito in a roasting pan with salt, pepper, and two or three onions and baste with hot lard or shortening. Cook for an hour and 45 minutes in a 375-degree oven, turning every twenty minutes or so. Sure beats having to dig up the back yard.


Curried Goatling:

Curried Cabrito
(make 5 servings)
1 lb chevon
1 tbsp flour
salt to taste
1 tbsp curry powder
3 oz butter
2 ripe tomatoes, stewed and strained
2 tbsp minced onion
1½ cup water
2 tbsp finely cut celery
2 tbsp diced apples (me: ARGH! >_<)

1. Cut meat into 1-inch squares; salt meat and sauté in butter.

2. Add onion and apples (me: I'm meltiiiing); sauté thoroughly. Sprinkle mixture with flour and curry powder and cook until flour colors.

3. Add strained tomatoes and water, cover saucepan and let cook slowly until done.

4. Serve with white rice.



BBQ Goatling:

Barbecue Sauce
2 cup water
1 tbsp sugar
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp oregano
6 whole cloves
3 carrots, diced
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt

1. Cut a very young goat (8 to 12 lbs) into serving pieces. Wash and dry pieces and place in an open pan in a 350° oven. Cook for 20 minutes using a meat thermometer, making sure internal temperature reaches 160°.

2. Prepare barbecue sauce. Simmer for 30 minutes. Baste cabrito with sauce every 15 to 20 minutes for 2 hours or until meat is very tender.