Here's How We Wean, Fatten, and Butcher Goats on Rimfire Ranch

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The pancreas (sweetbread) is near the liver and looks somewhat similar . . . except that it's smaller, has only one lobe, and is spotted. Judy also saved the kidneys. They're found among the fat and membranes attached to the backbone, are likely to be completely covered by fat, and look like giant gray kidney beans.

That took care of the abdomen, and our gutted goat looked like Fig. 10.

THE RIB CAGE

Judy started on the buck's chest by cutting through the diaphragm. She immediately found the heart in a lump of fatty tissue near the esophagus and she saved it. (We later ate it as stuffed goat's heart, which is a gourmet's treat. All the internal organs we tried, as a matter of fact, were delicious and it's a shame that most affluent Americans will eat only liver . .. if they'll eat any organ meat at all.)

The lungs looked like bright pink sponges and Judy found them easy to remove. Then she cut the windpipe and esophagus loose all the way up the backbone (by reaching down inside the rib cage with her knife) and worried them out.

AGING THE MEAT

The quick, hard work was now over and we took a break for a few days while our goat carcass aged and naturally tenderized itself. (If you insist on cutting up, packaging, and freezing a goat on the same day you butcher it . . . well, don't be surprised if the meat comes out stringy and far chewier than you'd have preferred.)

We certainly had beautiful hanging weather-a solid week of gray, fall drizzle that didn't get much above or below freezingbut we didn't do too good a job of hanging our buck's carcass the first evening: We left it suspended about four feet off the ground and our dog must have spent the whole night jumping up and nipping off bits of meat. The neck and forelegs-but, luckily, none of the choicer cuts of the goat-were shredded into ribbons the next morning when we got up. Naturally, we raised the buck's carcass a few more feet off the ground before letting it age another five days.

SPECIAL TIP: If you butcher when the weather isn't chilly enough to allow you to age a carcass outside, you can quarter your meat and age it in a refrigerator. It may be a little unhandy,

but the fridge will do the job . . . and it'll sure solve the "jumping dog" problem in the bargain.

CUTTING AND PACKAGING THE MEAT

After our buck had aged for six days (to be honest, a couple of days longer than we'd planned), we finally got caught up enough to cut it into manageable pieces and package it for the freezer. And, right or wrong, we did it our way . . . instead of following the "proper" esoteric traditions of "real" butchers who always seem to delight in sawing and cutting their way through the greatest quantity of bone possible. That may be the "proper" way to do the job . . . but it's not the way for us.

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