I finally executed my goat roast that I have been wanting to do over the past couple of years. Many people have asked me, 'Why a goat?' I don't really have a good answer. I have cooked a few whole pigs, and of course; whole chickens, turkeys, geese, pheasant, quail, and even a rabbit,,,,but these all seem too normal. I was ready to step outside the safety zone and try something different.
I think it goes without saying that this post is written by Jeff. Tiffany expressed her great reservation about what I am about to detail, but I reasoned with her by explaining that this blog is called The Christianson Adventure for a reason; and if I can't write about this, then we should change the blog name to The Christianson Routine.
WARNING: If you are a vegetarian, righteous, weak stomached, or just ignorant of where your grocery store meat comes from, you should not scroll any further down.
I picked up William (let's call him Bill for short) last weekend from a gentleman farmer in Burlington. I actually had to chase him down in a field to procure him. In exchange for $90, I was heading to my parents house with Bill in a dog crate. I won't got into much detail on what happened next but with my dad's help, we butchered him.
This was clearly not the most pleasant part of the entire experience, but I am glad I did it this way instead of purchasing a goat ready to throw on the grill. I think it is important to remember that we would not have meat without the death of a sentient animal. This goat was treated well while it was alive and was handled respectfully in death.
After we cleaned it up, I put I put it in a large cooler and stored it in my garage. It was 50lbs before we butchered it and down to 23lbs afterwards. My daily routine leading up to last weekend consisted of rotating out ice packs in the morning before work, and again in the evening before bed. By Saturday morning, it had cured up nicely. I didn't use much seasoning as I didn't want to drowned out the flavor. I used olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper, pureed shallots, and lemon juice.
I was using the
China Box which I had borrowed from a friend a few weeks ago and which I successfully cooked 6 racks of baby back ribs for Abe's birthday in. I also threw 2 whole chickens on the rack as well for the un-adventurous eaters (as it turns out we didn't seem to have any of these types in attendance). The whole cooking time took about 3.5hours and used about 30lbs of charcoal.
We served the meat with pitas, tzatziki sauce, and other condiments we frequently tried in our Greek travels. All and all it was a great Saturday afternoon with friends (including Bill).
