Texas Goat Sauce
The city of Brady (located in the geographical center of Texas) has held a goat cook-off since 1973. Approximately 20,000 goats are raised in McCulloch County, making it one of the leading goat-raising counties in the nation.
One winning recipe in the 1990s was Barney McBee’s Texas Goat Sauce (reprinted in Texas Monthly, below). The Texas goat sauce includes ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder and even two cups of black coffee.
Wikipedia: Brady, Texas
Brady is a city in McCulloch County, Texas, United States, and is the closest city to the geographical center of the state. Brady refers to itself as “The Heart of Texas”. The population was 5,523 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of McCulloch County.
Calendar of Events in Brady, Texas
Brady/McCulloch County World Championship Goat Cookoff (September, 2009)
The Brady/McCulloch County Chamber of Commerce will hold its 36th-annual World Championship Goat Cookoff during over Friday and Saturday of Labor Day Weekend at Richards Park. The celebration features 150 cooking teams assembled from all over Texas and the United States, cooking goat each in their own way. Cooking teams have traveled from as far as England to participate. Over 100 arts and crafts booths, kids games, horseshoe and washer pitching, and other events round out the day at the park.
At the end of the day, judging of the cooking team entrants occurs with prizes being awarded to top three teams. A Super Bowl winner is also announced from entrants of previous winners. Many other winners are announced, such as the Best-Looking Cooking Camp, the best designed arts and crafts booths, and the winners from the horseshoe and washer pitching competition. For more information, contact the Brady/McCulloch County Chamber of Commerce at 325-597-3491, or e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
World Championship Barbeque Goat Cook-Off
HISTORY & TRIVIA
• Began in 1973
• Always on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend
• Began as a fundraiser for the Jaycees
• Added the Arts & Crafts Show in 1977
• In the beginning the cookers raced each other to find a campsite
• The longest running goat cook-off in Texas
• The first cook-off had 16 entries, today we accept 150
• Goat market is a $2 million industry for McCulloch County
• Approximately 20,000 goats in McCulloch County
• McCulloch County ranks among the top 20 counties in the nation for the number of goats raised
Texas Monthly
ON THE MENU
The Kid Is Alright
by Helen Thompson
For more than twenty years, the central Texas town of Brady has staged the World Championship Barbeque Goat Cook-off on Labor Day weekend. Cabrito is a delicacy that has its ardent admirers—and many detractors. To those who have failed to see the merit in a crunchy yet tender piece of goat meat, the blame must be placed squarely on the way it’s been cooked and on the fact that the goat you got probably wasn’t a ten-to-eighteen-pound, suckling kid slaughtered at thirty to forty days of age. Older goat is often passed off as cabrito, but once they start browsing on grass, goats develop an unmistakable mutton flavor. They are also tough. The best time to get real cabrito is May through October. After October, you should be skeptical.
Cooking your own cabrito can be real simple—if you want to dig a hole in your backyard, as purists insist. All you need is a three-foot-deep pit with a mesquite or oak fire raging in it. Wrap a skinned cabrito in a gunnysack bound with wire and set the meat in the pit. Cover it with dirt to seal in the heat and let it cook all day. The cabrito will be smoke-seasoned and tender by nightfall. Apartment-dwellers might want to opt for the kitchen method of cooking cabrito: place half a cabrito in a roasting pan with salt, pepper, and two or three onions and baste with hot lard or shortening. Cook for an hour and 45 minutes in a 375-degree oven, turning every twenty minutes or so. Sure beats having to dig up the back yard.
Teresa L. Keese, executive vice-president of the Brady/McCulloch County Chamber of Commerce sent us this recipe after the most recent goat cook-off in Brady. “The winners from the 1996 contest were not willing to divulge their recipe secrets to us,” she writes, “but we were able to go back and get this previous winner’s recipe.” We are honored to have Barney McBee’s recipe for goat sauce, and hope that you enjoy it too.
Barney McBee’s Texas Goat Sauce
Makes about 7 cups
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 32-ounce bottle ketchup
3 tablespoons yellow mustard
2 cups black coffee
1 cup distilled vinegar
1 lemon, cut in half
6 tablespoons chili powder
3 good taps Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat oil over medium-low in a large saucepan. Add onions and garlic and sauté until tender but not brown. Whisk together ketchup and mustard in a large bowl and add to ingredients in saucepan. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Refrigerate unused sauce up to several weeks.
While this sauce is meant for goat, it has an earthy flavor (probably from the coffee) that goes nicely with beef or mutton.
Zagat (May 24, 2007)
August 30–September 1
National Goat Cook-Off
Richards Park, Memory Ln., Brady, TX 76825, 325-597-3491
Over a hundred teams gather in central Texas each Labor Day to compete for the championship title in Richards Park. Get your goat cooked in myriad ways (in 1995, the winner’s goat sauce included the special ingredient of two cups of black coffee), while arts and crafts and horseshoe- and washer-pitching round out the fun.
Cost: Free admission; event and food prices vary.