Africans get my goat

Dalfiatach wrote: »

I take it you've never eaten goat.

The meat tends to be tough and stringy, like old mutton only mankier. Stinks the place out as you cook it as well. And not very tasty. Bacon, goat is not. Ye'd have to be fairly hard up for food before you'd turn to eating goat.

Goat cheese is nice though. But what I want to know is, who milks the goats?

I've kept goats for years. The flavour of the meat is entirely dependent on what the goats have been eating. A young kid goat, fed on tasty greens is very tasty- a bit like flavoursome lamb. A goat that has eaten god knows what would tasty awful. The older the goat, the tougher and the more stringy the meat is (similar to mutton being a lot tougher and stringier than lamb).

Milking goats is a doddle- whats the problem? The milk is a lot creamier than cows milk and tastes identical (this depends on the breed of goat and what you have fed them of course). Milking goats tend to Saanan.

Lil Kitten- re goats in Kenya- I lived there for a year too. Goats tended to be kept for milk and would have been very rarely killed (the number of goats or camels that you had was a status symbol and denoted your place in societal hierarchy- similar to the type and age of your car here ) The reason goats are so popular in Kenya and other African countries- is principally because they are capable of eating virtually any vegetation. Its not uncommon to find goats even up low trees eating foliage (I know it sounds strange but its true). Goats headbutt each other- its life- they do the same here in Ireland as they do in Kenya. In Ireland we might disbud them (remove their horns before they develop) to minimise any damage that might ensue- elsewhere they don't really care to do it.

Re: Goat leather- yes, its good leather. I have a bodhran and a few bags made from goat leather. Its quality is determined by how its cured, but in general its very high quality.

Yes- goats have rectangular pupils, as indeed do octopus and some other creatures. Apparently its what makes their night vision so good.