What to do with a whole young goat? A report

Food blogger Corinna Frei ordered a whole young goat from our “nationwide, straight from the farm” range. In this report, she shows us what she did with it – including a recipe for a Jamaican-inspired goat curry.

Skip to recipe: Jamaican-inspired goat curry

We had family over for the Easter holidays and we had traditional roast young goat. For this dish, we used a shoulder of goat from our gebana delivery from Prättigau.

But what to do with the rest of the goat? What flavours go well with it? And how do meat deliveries from gebana work? That’s exactly what this report is about.

Whole young goat, reared organically in Prättigau

The gebana box contained a whole Swiss young goat from an organic farm in St Antönien in Prättigau. The meat was sent to us straight from the family-run farm. More importantly, however, it comes prepared in vacuum-packed portions, rather than as an entire goat.

The box includes two shoulders and legs on the bone (4 packs), back, ragout on the bone and offal (liver and kidneys); altogether around 6 kilograms.

How is the whole young goat delivered, how big is it and what’s the best way to store it?

Deliveries are handled by Mondexpress, which means the courier arrives at your door between 7:00 and 9:00 in the morning and hands over the refrigerated goods. The meat should go straight into the freezer. We find that the vacuumed pieces easily fit in a freezer drawer. Oh, and they use frozen bottles of apple fizz to keep the meat cool – practical and delicious!

To defrost the meat, we place the vacuumed pieces we want to use in the fridge well ahead of time. If we need to defrost quicker, we put the meat in a bowl of water. This doesn’t take much time at all, especially for the smaller packs like the ragout we use in the recipe.

Of course, you can also put some of the meat straight in the fridge. The offal can be kept in the lowest fridge compartment for up to two days in its original packaging. Diced meat lasts around seven days, and larger pieces up to ten days.

What’s the best way to use the pre-portioned pieces (in a household of two)?

In our experience, the individually vacuum-packed portions are ideal for two people. The individual portions also have very helpful labels, making it quick to find what you need in the freezer.

What does young goat taste like – and what does it go well with?

The flavour of young goat meat is similar to lamb, but less fatty and with a more delicate taste. There are a number of different ways you can prepare it: quickly seared and braised. With fine herbs or Middle Eastern spices. You can experiment a lot with it.

What can I do with the different pieces?

Here are a few practical suggestions to get you started:

• Back: A delicate piece of meat, the best way to serve it is as a traditional roast with a delicious sauce. A few years ago, I shared a recipe for saddle of venison, including tips for a tasty sauce following a family recipe on my blog.
• Ragout (on the bone): Ideal in ragout casserole or in curry like the recipe below.
• Shoulder and gigot (leg): Perfect for braising! Over Easter, we took inspiration from Andrea Caminada's recipe for roast young goat – a shoulder of young goat is enough for two to three people.
• Offal: I found a recipe for Moroccan skewers with young goat offal online that I would like to try out myself. Alternatively, I can recommend my pasta recipe with chicken liver and dried tomatoes – goes perfectly with young goat liver !

You can also look beyond Swiss or Mediterranean cuisine. In India or Jamaica, for example, young goat is used in curry.

I have loads of cook books at home and for this recipe, I took inspiration from “CURRY The 120 best recipes from India to Africa” by Vivek Singh which contains several recipes using young goat. A Jamaican goat curry caught my attention straight away. Here you can find my version of the curry to cook yourself. Have fun trying it out!

Recipe: Jamaican-Inspired Goat Curry

Ingredients for 2 to 3 people:

• 1 kg young goat ragout on the bone (box includes 4 x 500g vacuum-sealed packs)
• 1 tbsp chives, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped (half for the marinade, half for the curry)
• 1/2 bunch of thyme, leaves chopped (2 halves again set aside)
• 2 tbsp medium-hot curry
• 1 tsp allspice, finely ground or pestled in a mortar
• 1 onion, finely diced
• Fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1-2 fresh chilis (optional)
• 250 ml coconut milk
• 1 tsp salt
• To taste: lime juice and salt

Preparation:

Please note: the recipe takes some time to prepare! The meat marinates for at least 4 hours (or overnight) and also stews in the pot for quite a while.

1. Preparation is key: place the diced meat in a large bowl and mix with the chives, half of the garlic and thyme, allspice and 1 tbsp of curry powder and leave covered to marinate for at least 4 hours. In a second smaller bowl, add and mix together the rest of the ingredients for the curry: the remaining garlic and thyme as well as the diced onions and grated ginger.
2. As soon as the meat has finished marinating, heat the oil in a large pot and fry the ingredients prepared in the small bowl on a medium heat until the onions start to brown. This takes a few minutes.
3. Stir the rest of the curry powder (1 tbsp) in 50 ml of water, add to the pot and stir as it cooks until the liquid has evaporated. Then add the marinated diced meat and sear while continuously stirring.
4. Add salt and the fresh chilis (if you want) and then pour over the coconut milk and 100 ml of water. Bring the curry to the boil and then reduce the heat and leave covered to simmer for 2 hours.
5. After 2 hours, remove the lid and reduce the curry a little until the meat is soft and the sauce is thickened. Season the finished goat curry with lime juice and salt and serve with rice.

About Corinna Frei

On her blog SCHÜSSELGLÜCK, Corinna Frei has been sharing simple, healthy recipes and inspiration for a mindful lifestyle and essential oils since 2015. In addition to her blog, she provides workshops and works as a flavour consultant. She has been collaborating with gebana for three years. She moved from Frankfurt to Winterthur in 2021.