Grilled Leg of Goat

I was buying a leg of lamb at Ranch Market for a pre-Christmas get together and discovered a small leg of goat, about 3 1/2 pounds.

I couldn't pass it up. I've had some wonderful goat in restaurants before, particularly currey goat in several Indian restaurants. However, my one previous attempt to cook goat, blackened, was horrible. Then I found an incredible looking recipe on the internet at forkable and had to try it out. It took me forever to prepare it, and the result was good, but not great (it was a little over-cooked). However, I had a blast and I'm going to do it again. Next time it will go faster and it will be much better at it.

The forkable recipe indicated that goat is lean and tough, something I found on my first attempt. To tenderize the meat, forkable used rum and lime juice as a marinade. Forkable also found that goat tends to turn an unappetizing gray color, so forkable used beets to give the meat a reddish color. Very interesting ideas to address the issues.

I would have liked a little more meat than the 3 1/2 pounds. Forkable was suggesting a leg weighing 4 to 5 pounds. Forkable suggested trimming off the hard white surface tissue

and also any extra fat deposits which get used later.  

She did it the night before and I did not get started until the day of. Next time, I'll give it the extra time. It takes a fair amount of time to do the trimming.

I cut a large papaya in half and used half the seeds, placing them in a bowl.

I smashed the seeds with the back of a spoon, then mixed it with two tablspoons of kosher salt. 

The papaya seeds act as a binder. My papaya was not fully ripe. I suspect that the seeds of a fully ripe papaya will crush more easily than mine did. I rubbed the salt over the meat,

placed it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge while I then made marinade.

 For a marinade, I juiced 20 limes,

which did not seem fully ripe, so I added some additional key lime. I also added a cup of rum, a cup of white wine, 2 cups of olive oil and a quarter cup of brown sugar. I put the goat leg in the marinade and then put three sliced beets on and around the goat to provide some color.

I was supposed to let the goat marinade overnight. However, due to time limitations, I only let it marinade about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

I removed the goat from the marinade, then made quite a few deep incisions into the leg, inserting in each incision a garlic clove, a slice of ginger root and a piece of trimmed fat from the goat (forkable called it a "lardoon"). In retrospect, the garlic did not cook long enough to get soft. I would either leave it out, or more likely, cook it a little bit before-hand. Then I made the dry rub, including smashed up seeds from the other half of the papaya, 1/4 cup of kosher salt, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons of dry ginger.

Forkable also suggested 2 tablespoons of cumin, 1 tablespoon of coriander and 1 tablespoon of sumac. Then I rubbed the dry rub all over the goat leg,

put it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. Forkable suggested letting the leg sit for about 3 hours with the dry rub on it. Again, because of time constraints, I only gave it about 1 1/2 hours.

Forkable suggested searing in the juices on a bbq on high heat, 10 minutes on each side, about 20 minutes overall. I put my four burner outdoor gas grill on high on each burner and did the prescribed time. Forkable then suggested putting the leg in the oven at 325 degrees until the internal temperature of the leg reaches 130 degrees, which was after 90 minutes for her. Then tent it and let it sit for another 20 minutes and it will continue to cook and get up to about 140 degrees for nice medium rare meat. I left it on the outdoor grill, but turned the two middle burners off so it was getting indirect heat. The thermometer I was using started at 140 degrees and I did not get it off the grill until it had gone a little past 140 degrees. Unfortunately, it was a little overcooked.

We were waiting for Rachael and Nate to arrive and so it sat about 45 minutes or so before I carved it. Some of the meat was way too overcooked, some was just about right.

I think it would be amazing if it was cooked only as long as suggested. The flavor was off the charts. It was salty, sweet and tangy. I can't wait to try it again and give the various processes the full time and cook it a little less.