Have you tried the meat of a shoat ?

Question

Hi Folks,

By which I mean the odd cross between a goat and a sheep.

Or are they "geeps" ?

A lump of this cross-breed on a BBQ is fine.

I used to live for many a year in the Mid-East, and asked in my shoddy Arabic what it was.

It transpired that someone introduced sheep many years ago, which cross-bred with the local goats.

The sheep mainly perished due to over-heating, but the shoats and geeps carried on.

Marvellous stuff if you like your meat, but I'm jiggered if I can find it in the UK.

Any notions ?

Bob

Answer 1

When I was a chef I had musk ox, water buffalo, yak and caribou, most mature lamb is a bit stronger than the younger type, and goat is about the same, a bit gameier than lamb, som say they can tell the difference.

I bought a rack of goat, similar to lamb in Toronto Canada one time, took it home and cooked it for my family, it cost me half of the price of a rack of lamb, and cross bred animals would not be much different, here in Canada they experiment with something they called Beefalo, a cross between a buffalo and steer, for more marbling in the fat and a leaner and more larger animal, I had some once it was fine, no real difference in taste than a good steak, like Kobe beef it is tenderness issue now, like the Angus breed.

Answer 2

Are you trying to pull people's legs, or are you gullible enough that some one yanked your leg without you knowing it?

A shoat is nothing more nor less than than a young recently weaned pig. It is a porcine equivalent of veal.

FWIW, I've never heard of anyone offering shoat meat for sale. Suckling pig, i.e. one not yet weaned, is considered to be a delicacy, but between suckling pigs, and market hogs, there is no niche market.

Doc

Answer 3

No, I haven't tried it. I will ask my Mum if you like - we all lived in the Middle East for years and she ate virtually everything, including sparrows. The freak!!! lol

She still extols the virtues of mutton, she's a very strange woman, meat-wise.

Answer 4

http://www.answers.com/topic/shoat

"Shoat" is just young bacon, Bob! You wuz had!

Sheep & goats cannot cross-breed...