I consider fish as meat.
Because, we are already…sluggish from goat meat whilst glistening from sexplay in the Greek Isle’s long ago…
If you are in outer redneckistan there are probably small home producers happy to sell you some goat milk. Just need to find them.
Couple points about your future plans: if you want your lawn mowed you would be a lot better off with a couple of sheep. Goats don’t care for grass but will strip your trees and shrubs for you. Keep them in limited quarters and you will need super tight fencing, much stronger than for sheep, which do not climb, jump, or rub on fences like goats do. You’ll need to ensure their safety from predators including dogs. And if you want to produce goat milk you will need to be home every single day of your goats’ lactation cycles, you will need to learn how to milk, and how to use best practices for handling your milk safely. You’ll be buying and storing feed, coping with rats, building a milking stand, and dealing with breeding your does, taking care of their kids, and really, on and on and on.
Just saying. It’s what I’m doing right now.
Good point. You could look at it as how much of “x” is eaten, or how many people eat “x” at least once per year. I still think China (and large parts of East Asia), and the rest of the developed world would swamp out the goat-eaters.
Question raised:
So where in Chicago can I try goat? (Preferrably counter service and near the loop or the "L
I grew up in Puerto Rico. I have lived in San Antonio for ~25 years. I am married to a Muslim of Pakistani descent who was raised in Saudi Arabia.
Puerto Rico: when I lived there, goat was seen as a meat for special dishes for festive occasions. It was prepared “guisada”-style (similar to fricassée). (The way it was seasoned differed from how Mexicans season their “carne guisada”). I didn’t care for
Puerto Rican-style cabrito guisada so, I grew up thinking I didn’t care for goat meat. Then, an acquaintance of my mother’s, who was from one of the British Virgin Islands, prepared curried goat for me and I absolutely loved it.
Texas: As mentioned in a previous post, “cabrito” is a popular Mexican dish.
Saudi Arabia: goat is a popular meat there, although I do not know how it is seasoned or prepared.
Pakistan: goat is also a popular meat there. I am most familiar with a recipe in which it is cooked fricassée-style. (I find this recipe rather too greasy for my taste.)
One interesting thing I noticed about Muslims in south-central Texas is that, for the festival of Eid al-Adha, goat is the preferred species for observing the event, as opposed to sheep.
The best place (IMHO) is off the Orange Line Pulaski stop, Birrieria Zaragoza. Not only for their wonderful goat, but for their homemade tortillas that are cooked up on the spot for you. They close around 7 p.m., just so you know. If you ever decide to go, you can drop me a line, as I live a few blocks away.
Most of the good goat places I could think of are in Pilsen or Little Village. Closer to the Loop, there is Girl and the Goat, but that’s a proper sit-down restaurant.
Xoco on 449 N. Clark St., also has goat barbacoa as a special on Saturdays, but I would call ahead to make sure that hasn’t changed.
What you’re looking for at Mexican places is birria or barbacoa. Birria is more stewy and wet, and barbacoa is more like steamed meat. The thing is, barbacoa is usually beef, in my experience, around here, unless it specifically says barbacoa de chivo (goat) or barbacoa de borrego (lamb/mutton). Birria is usually goat, but it can also be lamb or mutton. I’ve been told that a lot of what gets sold as “chivo” here in Chicago is actually mutton.
I’d agree. If there’s a statistic to be had here it’s probably meaningless. McDonald’s use of beef probably overshadows all of the goat consumption in the world.
That does sound perfect as I normally fly into Midway and take the orange and red lines to my appointments at Northwestern University. Normally I’m just in Chicago during the business day though.
Yep, just one stop on the Orange line from Midway, and about a quarter mile walk north on Pulaski. I believe it opens at around 10 a.m. during the work week. It’s worth checking out. Like I said, if you’re in town and want to meet for lunch or dinner, drop a line. I’m usually working from home during the week.
There is nothing wrong or odd about eating goat. It is a pleasant meat much like mutton (lamb).
However…growing up a NZ sheep farm with the occasional goat as a pet I can say that sheep are an order of magnitude easier to farm. Plus they provide much more wool and meat per animal.
Goats are smart and cool but they are a bit like cats - they don’t readily take orders. If a goat decides to go over a fence, it will. Sheep are more placid - fence in the way? meh why bother.
The main value of goats in OECD countries is their fine hair - mohair and milk to make feta. They are uneconomic as a meat animal compared to beef and sheep.
To be fair the same could be said of farming deer which are a highly strung species and not easily managed. Yet I drove past umpteen deer farms yesterday. The markets for venison and deer velvet are strong.
Also, they can be raised in conditions where other herd animals can’t - mountanous, rocky, arid terrain, for example - goats will happily scramble through and pick out the food plants from amongst the thorns.
Yes that is certainly true. The average goat is a hardy individual who will thrill to the sight of thistles high on a rock face whereas the average sheep will shrug and wander downhill. 
I wonder if the perceived gaminess of some goat is related to their varied diet. Are there any plants that will affect gaminess?
As these frankly astonishing photos of goats grazing on the wall of a dam demonstrate:
They are very sure-footed creatures!
Isn’t this an agricultural story rather than cultural? I suspect goat really are not suited to large production in North America like cattle are. As mentioned above goat are often raised in marginal conditions that other animals are not suited to. I get the impression that many of the places where goat is more common have grazing land of marginal quality. Cattle are bred to be docile and carry a lot of meat, I suspect that on productive land they produce a lot more meat for your effort than goat do. Pigs and chicken can be raised in smaller pens and are well suited to combined agriculture.
I have also heard that goat can be very destructive to pasture with a grazing behavior that trims grass down to its roots (and also denudes shrubs). There is a story that back when Southern Alberta was being settled a group of Scottish goat farmers were run off from the Okotoks area by local ranchers because it was felt that the goats would ruin the pasture. My only cite is local oral tradition, and history of grazing politics is full of land grabs so take that as you will. I do know that goat are sometimes used to clear shrub from pasture and to get rid of unwanted species for environmental reclamation.
I really like goat, only had it in stew like meals like curry but yum.
Marvin Harris wrote about this in Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. I don’t have my copy at hand and I don’t remember what he said. But it’s an environmental/economic issue that became a cultural standard. (Like everything else, really.)
You might find more goat available as meat where goat’s milk products are more common.
I assume any butcher should be able to obtain goat for you. Several restaurants in this are offer goat dishes, but it’s possible they’re using lamb or mutton instead. I think farms that are raising goats for meat are probably producing goat’s milk as well. The goats are probably being fed grain and allowed to graze on grass, and that would produce less gamy meat than a free range goat.
I kiled a male goat that had not been castrated and he tasted awful to the point we could not consume the meat. I felt terrible that we killed him for nothing but it was just bad.
The Indian buffet near my office serves it. It is quite good.