#Review: Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

About the Book:


From appearances at the most high-end restaurants to street food carts coast-to-coast, goat meat and dairy products are being embraced across the country as the next big thing. With its excellent flavor, wide-ranging versatility, and numerous health benefits, goat meat, milk, and cheese are being sought by home cooks. And while goat is the world’s primary meat (upwards of 70 percent of the red meat eaten around the world is goat) never before has there been a cookbook on this topic in the United States. Goat is a no-holds-barred goatapedia, laugh-out-loud cooking class, cheesemaking workshop, and dairy-milking expedition all in one. With recipes such as Pan-Roasted Chops with Blackberries and Sage, Meatballs with Artichokes and Fennel, and Chocolate-Dipped Goat Cheese Balls, this book is sure to become the resource for this new frontier. 


About the Authors:


Goat is Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough’s 18th cookbook. They write for many national food publications, including Fine Cooking, EatingWell, Cooking Light, and theWashington Post. They live in Colebrook, Connecticut. Their blog is www.realfoodhascurves.com.


My Opinion:


Yes, we send some goats to the butcher. It is a very healthy meat and since we know exactly what they eat we know exactly what we are eating. Our butcher is very good; he kills them quickly and humanely. Far better than some factory farmed cow.


Goat is delicious. To me it tastes just like lamb. I ask the butcher to save me the bones and use them to make stock that I can for soups and stews.  In addition to the meat you know that I go crazy with the milk I get from my does. I make cheese, ice cream, caramel and fudge. Goats are a very productive animal!


This cookbook in addition to being full of great recipes is very entertaining. The authors have a very funny sense of humor that shows up everywhere - from the introductions to the recipes to the instructions within the recipes there is a lot of laughter to be found. In fact, it is one of the most fun to read cookbooks I have ever encountered. There are a number of stories woven throughout the various sections about visits to goat farms, cheese making facilities and just general goat tales (not tails.)


There are many recipes I am longing to try and know I will as time goes by but for the purpose of this post I made one called Schwarma.  It involved making an aromatic paste for lack of a better word, to coat the leg of goat before it roasted in the over. The smell as it cooked was divine!


I started by gathering the spices.

Then 6 (count 'em) cloves of garlic were pressed into a bowl with 2 TBSP of olive oil and 2 tsp of salt.

Then in went the spices:  1 1/2 tsp mace, 1 1/2 tsp cardamom, 1 1/2 tsp mild paprika, 1 tsp cinnamon,1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp cayenne. (This is for a 4lb leg of goat. Mine was much smaller as my goats are smaller so I used less.)

Doesn't that look beautiful?
I covered the meat with the paste and let it sit at room temperature while the over heated to 350°.

Then it went in and roasted 'til done. Mine took about an hour to medium. The larger one should take about 2 hours according to the cookbook.

Mmmmm, delicious. And again, the aroma was amazing!
It needed to rest so the juices would settle.
I served it with some rice and snow peas for the hubby and green beans for me.

IT.WAS. FANTASTIC.


I'm already thinking of what else to use this spice mix on - it will be wonderful on cauliflower or eggplant. It was exotic and flavorful with just a touch of heat.
I will definitely be making this again.


There are a lot of recipes in this book that call to me including a number of them in the dessert section. When I make a big batch of chevre I have about 2lbs of cheese. Now I will have some great avenues for using it.


This is a very useful cookbook for introducing the home cook to using goat and its products.
It is becoming easier to find goat cheese and goat milk and even goat meat in the supermarket so check it out!


Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese is available at Amazon.com















Disclosure:  I received a copy of Goat:  Meat, Milk, Cheese gratis from Abrams Books. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free cookbook. I received no monetary compensation for this post.