How to cook goat meat so it is actually tender

Goat is the most argued-about meat in a Kenyan kitchen. Everyone has an uncle who swears his is tender, and everyone has had a plate of goat that fought back. The difference is almost never the animal. It is the cut, the heat, and how long you were willing to wait.

Start with the right piece

Goat is lean and it is full of connective tissue. That combination only works one of two ways: cook it fast and hot, or cook it slow and wet. The mistake is the middle — a medium heat for twenty minutes — which is how you get meat that is cooked through and still tough.

For a stew or a curry, buy bone-in goat meat cut across the carcass. The bone is doing real work: it keeps the meat moist and gives the sauce its body. Boneless goat in a stew is a waste of money and flavour.

For nyama choma, buy the leg and have it jointed. For soup, ask for neck and bones. If you are not sure, tell the butcher what you are cooking — that is what the counter is for.

The salt question

Salt goat at least an hour before cooking, ideally the night before. Salt draws water out, then the meat reabsorbs it seasoned. Goat that is salted only at the end tastes flat no matter how long you cooked it.

Do not add lemon or vinegar at this stage. Acid tightens the surface and makes lean meat tighter still.

Stew: the two-hour rule is real

Brown the pieces in a heavy pot first, in batches, and do not crowd the pan. Crowding steams the meat instead of browning it, and you lose the crust that makes the sauce taste of something.

Then: onions, garlic, ginger, tomato, and enough water to come halfway up the meat — not to cover it. Bring it to a simmer and leave it alone for two hours. Not one. Two. Goat needs the time for the collagen to turn into gelatin, and that starts happening around the ninety-minute mark.

If it is still tough at two hours, the heat was too high and the water boiled off. Add hot water, lower the heat, and give it another thirty minutes. It will come round.

Nyama choma: the opposite approach

For choma, the meat wants high heat, a short time and a rest. Season with salt and a little oil, put it over coals that have stopped flaming, and turn it often. A leg takes about 40 to 50 minutes over medium coals depending on size.

Cut into the thickest part to check. If the juice runs clear, it is done. Take it off and let it sit for ten minutes before you cut it — cutting immediately loses the juice onto the board.

Three things that ruin goat

• Boiling instead of simmering. A rolling boil makes the fibres contract and squeeze out moisture. It should tremble, not bubble hard.
• Cold water halfway through. It stops the cooking and toughens the surface. Always add hot water.
• Cutting it too small. Small cubes dry out before the middle is tender. Keep stewing pieces the size of a matchbox, or bigger.

What to buy

We cut goat to order at Stall 56, City Market: bone-in for stew, leg for choma, neck and bones for soup, and minced if you are making burgers or kofta. Any weight from half a kilo, in quarter-kilo steps.

Order before 6:30 PM and it is with you the same day across Nairobi, cut fresh that morning and never frozen.