unusual IngredIent

Cabrito

Cooking with goat is a favourite ingredient with some of the country’s best and most interesting chefs, including many Michelin starred restaurants. Goat is increasing in popularity and is set to become a staple of the British dinner table. James Whetlor from Cabrito Goat Meat began selling goat meat, sourced from British dairy farms, to London restaurants in 2012. To refect the increasing demand and appetite from diners he developed a range of products, making kid meat widely available to buy online at Ocado including chops, diced and mince. Ex-chef James Whetlor didn’t set out to create an award-winning business. He founded Cabrito Goat Meat after needing help to manage his massively overgrown garden that hadn’t been touched in years. The idea was that four goats would help clear the ground. A chance meeting at Taunton farmers’ market introduced James to Will Atkinson at Hill Farm Dairy. “I ended up buying a couple of goats ofWill to put on the restaurant menu at River Cottage” James says, “They few out of the door. I thought, ‘We’re on to something here’, and went straight back to Will for more.” James also felt he could do something about the ridiculous waste of the male billy goats from the dairy industry, an ‘ethical car-crash’. He thought there had to be a better solution than gassing them as a by-product at a few hours old. Calling on his 10 years’ of chef experience and contacts in London, James began working with goat dairies to supply restaurants. James’ frst sale was to Jeremy Lee at Quo Vadis in March 2012; and through word-of-mouth and thousands of miles on the M3 and M25 from Devon to London, James was soon supplying top restaurants. Today, he supplies over 70 well-known establishments including Mark Hix, St John, Quo Vadis and new restaurants on the ever-changing food scene including Marksman, Smokehouse and Pidgin and Antonio Carluccio and Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall amongst its fans. Cabrito Goat Meat won an Observer Food Monthly Award in 2014 for Best Ethical Producer. Kid goats are a similar size to a spring lamb - around 20kg - and have a delicate, sweet and musky favour. It is lower in fat than beef or pork, is rich in potassium and has twice as much iron as beef. One of the things that make Kid goat so appealing is its global nature. The meat takes well to punchy favourings including Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern herbs, spices and rubs. So many cultures have goat as a mainstay of their diet the recipe choices are almost endless. It can be smoked in Nigeria, or pulled in Deep South US BBQ dishes or cooked on a tandoor. Kid goat occupies a nice middle ground. It is a strong enough favour to stand up to the spice and heat of Middle-Eastern and North African but subtle enough to respond brilliantly to the herby, garlicy, lemony and winey based dishes of European cooking.