Monday was the big day. One of those start early and finish late kind of days. But it couldn't have gone much better. Here's a brief recap:
The Secret Ingredients
As usual, I got too excited during the preparation process and forgot to keep taking pictures. Above is just about everything used during the roast. Salt, pepper, and dry rub (orange tint tupperware) went on first. I'll admit, the mustard rub that was supposed to follow next never actually happened. (No big deal, though. It was added later.) The cider vinegar baste was generously drizzled over the meat for the first 2 hours before dumping the remaining liquid into a aluminum foil mummy bag with celery, onions, garlic, bell peppers, brown sugar, and lemon juice.
Slow Roastin'
From about 12 until 4, this was the scene in the backyard: a couple of friends and I standing around, watching these two guys cook with our mouths watering. Other than the initial difficulty of getting a bunch of wet wood to start, the fire burned nice and hot all day long. All that was required of us was to flip after a little over an hour.
Who Dat Goat?
After those first 2 hours of cooking had come and gone, it was time to wrap the bad boys up. I had a little miscalculation when purchasing aluminum foil: only had enough to wrap one goat, so we threw the other on top while Willy made a heroic Kroger run. The timing worked out well. By the time the first goat was ready to eat, the second was on its last 45 minutes of cooking.
Come Getcha Some Goat
The unwrapping of the first goat was a little nerve racking. No one had seen the meat since we covered it in aluminum foil 2.5 hours earlier, so we were clueless as to how everything would turn out. Luckily, we peeled back the foil and a cloud of delicious steam burst out. The meat was already falling off of the rib cage and everything was tender enough to pull apart with fingers alone. We waited a few minutes to let things cool off, then several pairs of hands pulled the meat and divvied it up into 2 large pans, one on each side of the table.
Whatever hamburger buns Willy picked up at the grocery store were gone within minutes, and the rest was piled up onto some paper plates. I could be wrong, but I don't think we dirtied any silverware the entire night. Guys and gals alike showed their inner carnivores, diving in hands first and reducing the goat to nothing but bones. Even the vegetables disappeared. (Some might argue they were the best part.)
As soon as Goat #1 was entirely consumed, Goat #2 was hoisted off the flames and moved to the table as well. Again, it was gone in no time at all. In fact, I heard several times that the second goat was better than the first. Must have been the extra brown sugar Sous Chefs Mark and Gibbs tossed in at the last minute.
Here's a link to a few more pictures of Monday's goings on. Thanks to everyone that showed up and tried a bite. Seeing that many people gathered around a big hunk of slow-roasted meat and having a grand ol' time was the goal from the get-go. What little time I had to stand on my tip toes and survey the crowd enjoying the goat meat was very rewarding. Made all that early morning goat wrangling and poison ivy worth it...
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