All of us have seen meat inflation soar in recent years, a result in rising input prices for farmers; and for those that buy meat from overseas, a price leap after the currency swing after the Brexit Vote.
Many of us will rotate between Beef, Lamb, Pork and Chicken… perhaps with Duck, Rabbit, Venison too. But one meat which few of us use outside the ethnic hospitality sector is Goat. Forget your preconceptions about tough strong tangy meat; modern billy goat is tender, and flavourful like lamb.
You don’t just have to take my word for it, with companies like Gourmet Goat winning the BBC Food and Farming Awards, and Cabrito and Just Kidding in the Cotswolds gaining rave reviews. It’s also the sustainable as well as cost effective choice: as we continue to drink more goats milk, and demand goats cheese on our menus, then more goats are born.
Consumers forget that for mum to be milked she needs to have young, and the boy baby goats – Kid Billies – have no use in the dairy industry. So, if you have goats cheese on your menu then you morally should also serve some Kid Goat at times; think of cooking it hot and fast with oregano and thyme for a summer grill.
Good for your GP and the planet alike.
Shane Holland is Executive Chairman of Slow Food in the UK. He is food writer and expert on sustainable food issues.
