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The economics of goat
By adamg on Mon, 01/09/2023 - 11:03am
The other day, Tim McCormack had a chat with a butcher at M.F. Dulock in Somerville about why it's so hard to find goat meat. It has to do with the fact that, unlike beef, people only tend to want goat for stewing. He explains why that makes butchers reluctant to regularly carry goat (note: click on the "Show more" links for each entry).
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Comments
The simple explanation seems
The simple explanation seems to be that there isn't enough demand for goat at high-end specialty butchers like Dulock.
The obvious solution: go to a Halal market. They all have it.
Hmm, Garden Halal Meat on Blackstone Street has a buffet with North African stews. That just jumped to the top of my food to-do list.
What's his shop's demographic?
If I was looking for goat meat I would probably look to the halal markets first where you're more likely to find immigrant customers who likely consume it more regularly.
That seems like a better source than a butcher with a mission "to strengthen our local food system by offering ethically sourced meats and honest dialogue" and that boasts "We carefully source our livestock from small farms in New England and the Hudson Valley."
No offense to them as it looks like a good shop, just not one with customers that would be regularly looking for goat meat.
Food Land in Malden is the
Food Land in Malden is the Halal Jam spot
also worth looking in Hispanic meat markets....
I'm not sure about where exactly to go in Boston (places in Everett/Revere/Chelsea would be where I'd look first), but I used to live in Attleboro and would shop at Armando & Sons Meat Market and they always had multiple choices for cuts of goat on hand.
This comment makes no sense.
It’s responding to an argument neither the author nor the butcher made. Most butchers don’t carry goat, for the reasons the butcher stated. For some reason you used that unassailable argument as a jumping off point to take shots at a local butcher because you apparently don’t like the shop’s mission statement. What a strange response.
Tell me you missed the point
The first line of the post is about a conversation with this butcher about why it's "so hard to find goat meat" around here.
That is the claim.
My point, which is one that others here have confirmed, is that if you go to a halal butcher or a market in the area that caters to other immigrant groups that more commonly eat goat it is not hard to find. Here's a nice supermarket in Roxbury that carries it.
Pointing out that a butcher with a mission statement as quoted is not one that matches those demographics and would therefore have a perspective that there is a low demand for it is hardly taking a shot, in fact I said that it looked like a good place.
Bit of a misrepresentation
If you look at the actual thread, you'll see that I never said it was hard to find goat meat, generically.
The way Adam phrased it is a bit misleading, and while I don't really blame you or him for that, I do want to make it clear that that wasn't the original point.
Not a better source if you want ethical sourcing
I'm well aware that I could get goat at a number of shops in the area, but I was at MF Dulock specifically because of that mission statement. We eat very little meat, and when we do, we ensure it's from a place that cares well for both the animals and the land.
That requires either us or the supplier knowing the farmer, which isn't possible at most markets.
Farmers' markets
...or direct from the farm. Anything you buy there will be frozen, so go to the farm and stock up. See the CISA website for farms.
Correct, except goat isn't common there either
Most people don't want to raise goats because goats are Trouble. :-P The only reliable source I know of is Chestnut Farms at the Boston Public Market. And I also don't want to go halfway across the state just to pick up a couple pounds of goat meat.
I was getting delicious goat …
… liver, kielbasa and stew meat from a farmer who came to the Dewey Sq farmers market till last summer when she decided the driving into town and out again was too much. I hope to see them back this year.
I’ve seen it….
….frozen at the Market Baskets in Revere and Chelsea
I’ve seen it….
….frozen at the Market Baskets in Revere and Chelsea
I’ve seen it….
….frozen at the Market Baskets in Revere and Chelsea
I have goat meat in Shaw's on
I have seen goat meat in Shaw's on HP Ave.