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So we just got three goats butchered for market yesterday, and it looks like I'm going to get to keep the offal. I have three hearts, three livers, and three tongues.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can cook it and make it palatable? I've never eaten heart or liver before (besides in pate).

Does mixing it with ground beef into a meat loaf or meatballs make it tastier? What do you think?

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I have hunted goat and I can say that the liver tastes just fine right out of the animal. So it's perfectly palatable simply raw. But if you insist on the lesser way of enjoying meat, sometimes I fry liver in ghee + garlic, dice, and throw on a salad. Liver will get a nice brown on it if you let it dry for a while in the fridge. Heart mostly tastes like muscle meat and has a mild flavor, so there is nothing to making it palatable. I like this raw too. You could try a carpaccio. Tongue is interesting. Google for a recipe. There are hundreds of ways. – Marnee Oct 20 2011 at 23:47
so weird you ask, i am trying all of it next week. i requested it at the farmers market today! – Mallory Oct 21 2011 at 0:11
I did actually have goat heart once in Japan. It was sliced very thin, skewered and charred over fire. We dipped it in a sour sauce and ate it it. It was fine. Nothing too crazy. If you don't plan on slicing very thin I'd think you'd want to cook it quite a bit - like a beef stew approach. – ben61820 Oct 21 2011 at 1:22

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We eat goat AND sheep offal in Greece by the tons! It is LOVELY and very healthy. I basically grew up on such food (when I moved abroad and stopped eating that stuff my health declined, which lead me to Paleo to get it back).

One thing for goat meat/offal/guts specifically though: you might need to throw away the first water you boil them on. Depending on the age of the goat, it will smell less or more (older male goat meat/offal smells strongly). This obviously means that you need to know your goat, what you're buying. In Greece we boil older goats for 20-30 minutes in lots of water, then using a spoon throw away the thingie that appears on the top of the pot while boiling, then we strain, and then cook as we want (stew, baked, fried, whatever).

Sheep does not usually need this treatment, unless it's an old male sheep, and if it's guts you're cooking. The rest of the parts, or younger/female sheep, can be cooked directly.

I would not personally mix it with any other kind of meat. Goat/Sheep have distinct taste.

If you have guts you want to cook, you know, the intestine parts, you need to wash these up from both sides. To do that we usually use a long piece of wood (as thick as a chinese utensil), and with its help we turn the guts inside-out, so we can wash them thoroughly. Then, we dip them in very hot water for a few minutes in order to kill the bad bacteria. Then, we cook for 20 mins in new water, throw away that water. Then we cook as a soup called "patsas", I can call my mom for the recipe if you want it. Picture: http://www.sintagespareas.gr/images/stories/rapidrecipe/1787-3-patsas-ladorigani-apo-tin-eidokia-by-golfo.jpg (it's much more yummy than it looks in that picture, my mom's looks better).

For spleen/pancreas/heart/liver/lungs/kidneys, we wash them, throw away the first boiling water as described above for 30 minutes. Then we let them cool, cut them in 1-inch pieces, and then we usually fry them well using olive oil and lots of lemon, or we bake them (Picture: http://photoshoper.gr/images/sikotaria-furnu.jpg ), or every Easter, we use them in a kind of soup called "mageiritsa". Picture: http://thermalsprings.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/mageiritsa1.jpg

You can use BOTH the gut and the various organs in a single recipe, we call it "kokoretsi" (or "kontosouvli", in villages): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Kokoretsi.jpg Recipe explained here, but you will need a kind of oven that turns around the spit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoretsi

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i've eaten lamb face stew and the tongue was in there - trust me seeing teeth bob around in a bowl is a little skeevy but it was tasty, and then goat heart and tongue at a japanese restaurant - thinly sliced, marinated and grilled. was good so am thinking..

because they'll be a bit gamier you could do a milk soak for about 30 minutes before using, that will help. maybe going old school with the liver, with a little coating of rice flour for crunch, cooked up with onion and bacon. i've also seen the liver used as a masala and "mutton liver fry" at indian restaurants. with the amount of spices used it would be delicious. the heart and the tongues not so sure about but maybe preparations/recipes for lamb offal will work - from what i've read the crossover between those two is not too much, just the goat being gamier.

good luck!

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I've never eaten goat liver, but I've eaten many pounds of lamb liver. I just recently had my local market make sausage links out of 1/4 lamb liver and 3/4 pork + spices. I'm thinking that it will be palatable. I think your meatloaf idea is great so long as you grind up the liver and mix it well.

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I love that sausage idea, my butcher said they need a 10 lb minimum on special orders like that though so that would be an awful lot of sausages for my freezer. – Jeff Oct 21 2011 at 1:15
Yeah, I'm gonna be stuck with 5 lbs of this crap if it doesn't pan out. I have a good feeling about it though. – Travis Culp Oct 21 2011 at 1:47
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I found a goat liver and one heart at Whole Foods, passed on the kidney. Soaked the liver overnight in milk, caramelized an onion in butter and cooked the liver in bacon grease until just barely medium. Good, just a touch gamier than beef liver. My dog got the heart, raw.

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