Thread: goat stew differing results, any ideas ?

Any meat can be cooked tender if you cook it slow and keep it moist.

Fat and connective tissue helps keeps meat moist and tender..why cuts like shoulder and shin or shank meat, brisket and short ribs are favored for long slow cooking. Tender cuts are not suited for slow cooking, cook them too long, even covered in liquid, and they turn into cardboard. So for e.g. beef, rump steak is ok for casserole if you brown pieces and then only give them 20-30 min in the oven in the casserole dish. Which means you "bake" the rest of the casserole ingredients somewhat and then add the meat. Shin makes a far better casserole, you brown it and cook all ingredients in the oven at the same time.

For goat I much prefer to slow cook on the bone. I will often take the shoulder and let my mate have the legs. But legs are fine if you poach them in your marinade liquid tightly covered, same as for shoulder, but for less time.

A curry is essentially a casserole. Treat it the same. If the meat is chewy you have not cooked it long enough. If it is dried out and stringy like chewing wet cardboard it is likely a tender cut that has been overcooked.

So try and fast roast or fry tender cuts, slow cook or casserole the others.

To slow cook you start with high temp..Brown the meat in a pan or casserole dish in batches on the stove top if pieces, sear a joint at 200C in an open roasting pan in the oven, turning it once, for 15min. Rub both with olive oil first. Then for either add all ingredients to the oven dish, cover tightly, foil for joint to seal the roasting dish, lid for pieces in a casserole, and turn the temp down to 100C and leave for the duration. Say 2-3 hrs for a large goat leg, 3-4 hours for a shoulder, 1.5 hours for pieces in a casserole dish. For the joint, turn the oven off but leave joint in there undisturbed for a min of another hour or until ready to serve in 2-3 hours. For the pieces remove from oven and reheat later if required.