Chevon, Cabrito, or Capretto: The Adorable Goat Meat Names

This morning I came across an article about goat meat. The title pretty much screamed out at me to read it since it was "How I Learned to Love Goat Meat".

First of all the names:

Chevon is the French term for meat from goats, and is used to describe the meat from a 5-8 month old kid weighing in around 48-60 lbs.

Cabrito is the Mexican name for the young goat meat, and is the meat from a 4-8 week old young kid.

Capretto is the Italian term, meaning "kid goat".

http://www.squidoo.com/CHEVON

Each culture has a different age they prefer their goat, so the terms all refer to goat meat, but can also infer a size or age of the goat, depending on the use by holiday, event or religion. That's the part I'm still learning as far as timing of breeding. Its kind of important to have the right age and size goat for the right holiday.

Bucky Boy last November

There were a few basic nuggets in the article that I seem to pass on to people when they ask about it, such as,

"...goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world, a staple of, among others, Mexican, Indian, Greek and southern Italian cuisines".


Also, "...the meat is lower in fat than chicken but higher in protein than beef"'.


But then there was this: "Indeed, goats have long held a lowly reputation. Scavengers, they are falsely accused of eating tin cans. Their unappetizing visage is simultaneously dopey and satanic, like a Disney character with a terrible secret. Their chin hair is sometimes prodigious enough to carpet Montana. Chaucer said they “stinken.”


This part got me going because, strange looks aside in some of the goats' eyes, my Boer goats are hardly 'scavengers', don't have chin hair and don't stink.


Yes, the last part will change soon enough for my new little buck though. But that's the thing. Only the intact (not castrated) males stink. Most of you good cat and dog owners who aren't breeding, will neuter your animals because they too will stink, or stink up the place given a chance to spray. Some cultures want that in their goat meat though, and sorry, the stink is part of the natural process - and the goat dating process. The bucks spray themselves (Ugh!), and the girls LOVE a stinky buck. The barn was a riot while stinky old Bucky Boy was here. Woo!


Goats are actually picky eaters unless starving. They wasted a lot of hay this winter because some of mine was stemmy. Even in the coldest weather, they picked through for the best parts and once it hit the ground, I think they have a one minute rule. After a minute, likely someone has stepped on it, pooped on it, or its been eaten, so if its still on the ground, its waste. If you look at my fields now, you can see where they look like they were seeding a lawn. Maybe they were? Hmm. I'll have to watch that.


So to read what is so exciting about goat meat and find some recipes, read the article below.


How I Learned to Love Goat Meat

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/dining/01goat.html?th&emc=th

and for more information:

http://www.squidoo.com/CHEVON