[Sca-cooks] How to get a kid

[Stefan li Rous]

<<< Well, if you do it the old fashioned way it can be kind of expensive as you do the wining and dining part and buy some jewelry and when you finally get to the best part you still have to wait at least 9 months . . . uh . . . oh, you're talking about goats are't you . . . never mind . . . :-) >>>

That was basically what occurred to me, but I was going to suggest looking at these Florilegium files to make it more period.
p-sex-msg (66K) 1/22/11 Period thoughts on sex and sexual practices.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PERSONAL/p-sex-msg.html

And maybe:
aphrodisiacs-msg (34K) 1/12/08 Medieval aphrodisiacs.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PERSONAL/aphrodisiacs-msg.html

But instead,
<<< The question is: should I consider getting the kid sometime earlier? >>>

Are you paying by the pound? If so, and you have the freezer space, then I would order it sooner. You still have to have it butchered and portioned out, right? The sooner you can do that, then the less you have to worry about as the feast nears.

Do you need specific cuts of goat for the dishes you have planned? If so, can you buy less than a whole goat and get just the cuts you need? "half a goat" might be just a bisected goat, not exactly the same.

<<< Is it true that half a kid is better than none? >>>

I've seldom had goat, and that is probably true for most folks. So half is probably better than none. On the other hand, goat is an unusual meat, tasting a bit different from chicken or beef, so some folks might not like it, or even try it. So for sixty folks half a goat might be better than a whole goat, although I'm not sure how much useable meat you actually get off a goat. They tend to be rather boney, if I remember right.

Here's a file with some recipes in the Florilegium in case you might need them:
goat-msg (24K) 5/23/06 Period goat dishes. Cooking goat. Recipes.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MEATS/goat-msg.html

Just in case you are thinking about slaughtering the goat yourself:
butch-goat-art (16K) 7/14/98 "Butchering a Live Goat, for (and by) Beginners" by Charles McCathieNevile.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/ANIMALS/butch-goat-art.html

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****