1. Chevon is valued highly by certain
people, for example, of Mediterranean, Caribbean,
Near Eastern, Indian, Far Eastern, Central American
origin. Among Spanish speaking people it is called
''cabrito.''
2. The US National Livestock and
Meat Board has issued uniform standards and identifications
of retail cuts for beef, pork, veal and lamb but none
for chevon; probably because this market is relatively
small or not well organized.
3. The goat carcass is different
from the lamb carcass, being much leaner and having
only little subcutaneous and muscular fat. Otherwise,
the bone structure and muscle position may be quite
similar. Therefore, in the absence of official charts
on the anatomy and retail cuts of goats - chevon -
, it is suggested that the respective lamb charts,
as attached may serve a useful purpose.
4. A goat weighing 100 lbs may have
a carcass weighing approximately 50 lbs, or 500f liveweight.
Goat carcasses unlike pork or beef but like lamb are
not split nor ''ribbed,'' i.e. the whole carcass is
handled readily, being lighter than pork or beef and
are cooled as a whole. For carcass evaluation, however,
the fore- and hindsaddles are separated between the
12th and 13th rib to show rib eye and loin eye areas,
and subcutaneous fat thickness. The foresaddle, shoulder,
rack, foreshank and breast make up approximately 510f
the carcass or 25.5 of liveweight. The hindsaddle,
loin, leg and flank comprise the difference of 490r
24.5respectively.
5. Principal Cuts Primal cuts are
the leg, loin, rack and shoulder. The largest cut
is the leg, about 330f the carcass or 16.51f the live
goat. On a retail basis it would be trimmed down to
240f carcass weight. The sirloin is normally included
with the leg after separation of the loin at the seventh
or last lumber vertebra. In beef and pork the sirloin
and rump are separate cuts.
6. Leg - The leg may be prepared
as Frenched, American or boneless. For the Frenched
leg, only the tail bones, hock bones, Achilles tendon,
fat trim and prefemoral lymph node are removed and
the shank bone is exposed. For the American leg, the
shank bone and the shank muscle are also removed.
The whole leg may also be cut into 4 to 6 sirloin
chops, the rump, center roast and shank. The latter
two can be sliced into steaks. The best use of the
leg is as boneless cut, after removing the whole pelvic
bone and femur. For roasting, the boneless leg needs
to be tied together or jet-netted.
7. Loin - The loin is the most valuable
and most tender cut. Only 4 of the live weight are
retail loin cuts. Kidney fat is usually left on the
wholesale carcass to protect the valuable tenderloin
muscle underneath from discoloration and dehydration.
The loin may be prepared as double loin chops, or
after sawing through the lumbar vertebrae as single
chops containing the characteristic T from the vertebral
process as in T-bone steak of beef. The rack may be
prepared likewise into rib chops, containing at least
one rib, but may be cut considerably thicker than
pork chops or beef steaks because of their small size.
8. Shoulder - The largest cut in
the foresaddle is the shoulder, second in size only
to the leg. Shoulder cuts are priced less than leg
and loin because of less tenderness and palatability.
However, Saratoga roll boneless shoulder blade chops
composed largely of rib eye muscle make very tender
and juicy chevon. The rest of the shoulder goes for
stew or shish kabobs. The shoulder can also be made
into a jet-netted boneless shoulder roast. Rough cuts,
the flank, fore shank and breast are best ground up,
but can be utilized also cubed or as spareribs.
9. Overall, 500f live weight is wholesale
carcass but only 34 1s retail boneless chevon meat.
10. Adapted from Chapter 14, ''Lamb
Identification and Fabrication'' in ''The Meat We
Eat'', 11th ed., by J. R. Rowans and P.T. Ziegler
(Danville, Ill.: The Interstate Printers & Publishers,
Inc. 1977), 489-526.
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