(⬆Not the goats we butchered, just a stock photo!)
When a friend was ready to decrease the size of her goat herd, we jumped at the opportunity to buy two of them for meat. We’d previously butchered two goats and while a nice beef steak is nice, goat has proved to be an economical way to get grass-fed meat in our freezer.
The previous time we butchered goats, Jeremy let the carcasses hang for a few days before piecing them out. We had some nice cuts for slow-cooking and even had goat ribs!
This time, the weather was warmer and when he cut the animals open it was immediately apparent that flies were going to be joining the butchering party, so hanging wasn’t an option. We’d already discussed possibly just grinding the whole thing to save time, so he quickly started cutting hunks of meat off and one of our daughters took it inside to cut until smaller pieces to fit in the grinder. She put them in the refrigerator, not just for preservation but because cold meat always grinds better.
Later that day, I started grinding the meat – and grinding, and grinding, and grinding. We had the grinder going for at least an hour without stopping for more than a minute or two here and there! We did double-grind it so that took a little longer, but the grinder was a champ. (If you want to see the grinder we used, come on in to the store – we have it on display and can special order them.)
Jeremy pulled all of the leaf fat (the fat around the organs) and I spent some time over the next few days rendering it into clean, white tallow.
How Much Meat We Got from Two Goats
When all was said and done, we got 89 pounds of ground meat and 9 and a half quarts of tallow from two goats.
Though we didn’t weigh the meat the previous time we butchered goats, the tallow yield was about the same amount. I call them “lard goats”! We’re storing the tallow in mason jars at room temperature: because it was all leaf fat with no traces of meat, it should stay fine for months at cool room temperatures.
How We Use Ground Goat
For the most part, we use ground goat anywhere you’d use ground beef. It does have a different flavor, so if I’m not sure I want the goat flavor to come through, I’ll mix it with equal parts ground beef. When cooked in chili or anything with a similar spice profile, it’s pretty indistinguishable from ground beef.
I recently grilled a bunch of burgers for guests and did 3 parts ground beef to 1 part ground goat, and I don’t think they knew the difference – except that someone asked before eating because they knew we’d recently butchered goats.
Ultimately, we use ground goat anywhere we’d use beef, but since we also have beef in the freezer we also frequently mix it with beef. It’s grass-fed meat and we’re grateful for it!
Don’t Wait to Start Learning!
A lot of people, ourselves included, want to raise more of our own calories, but are limited by space or other restrictions. I hope this demonstrates that you can start learning parts of that process right now! You don’t have to start at the beginning: take opportunities to learn and practice different parts and you’ll be all the more prepared to go from breeding to cooking.
PS: This book is our favorite comprehensive resource on butchering small livestock. Come on down to the store and check it out!
