Well, goat is very lean, and pig, well, isn't. :) My experiences with goat are so different from yours that I can't really help. Do you know how mature the goat was? Perhaps it was kid? Goat usually has a lot more flavor--or at least in my small experience plus reputation--if for no other reason than goats who are allowed to forage eat some pretty gnarly things. Plus, like mutton, when they're mature they just have, er, flavor. Stew with assertive aromatics and spices is well accepted.

For inspiration, you might try looking up Caribbean recipes. Goat is very popular there, and there's a whole world beyond jerk. Jamaican goat curry is positively famous, but, again, to be sure it isn't cow, I think you need a less refined goat. :) I was looking for the name of this really amazing dish (not Jamaican) which is kind of built up in layers, but is basically a kind of braise, I think, and didn't find it but did find a source both of meat and recipes for you: The Goat Company

Since the osso buco was so mild, why not treat the loin chops as you would lamb loin? Maybe grill them with herbs, or braise them in a light sauce?

No suggestions re the goat, but you got me wondering why we typically use Swiss cheeses like Gruyere on Monte Cristos. Comte on Monte Cristo would be similar and would seem to make more sense.

Goat = venison, pretty much. So recipes that work for venison will work for goat. Like plllog, the goat that I've eaten had a lot more flavor than any beef.

Try googling 'Mexican food recipes for goat' for some traditional cooking approaches to goat meat.

Goat (aka Cabrito around here) is very popular in Tex-Mex cooking. Personally, I haven't tried it, the idea of eating a baby animal of any kind is rather off-putting for me. Doesn't make sense, I know, as I'm petty much a carnivore. Try Googling "Recipes: Cabrito" (minus the quotation marks). You'll get a pretty good list.

Rusty

I confess that everything I know about cooking goat, I learned from the Rolling Stones. "Goats Head Soup". I.e. . . . nothing.

Similarly, everything I know about women, I learned from the Rolling Stones. "Some Girls". I.e. . . .

There use to be a farm in the area where I could buy a whole baby goat. Bought one twice. So little waste. I cooked the various cuts the same way I cook lamb.

Ann T, I remembered that you put a whole baby goat in the freezer more than once, and I was hoping you'd chime in.

As for goat, I agree with ci_lantro, it's much like venison, and I'd use it accordingly. I do have a nice recipe for venison potstickers from Chef Eric Villegas, a local Michigan boy who used to have a show on PBS called "Fork in the Road". Now he owns "Michigan Venison" and sells on-line.

Venison Potstickers

A delicious Asian flare for our whitetail venison.

• Potsticker Filling:
• 1lb. ground venison
• 4 c. water
• 1-1/2 c. shredded or finely sliced cabbage
• ½ c. finely chopped green onion
• 1-1/2 Tbs. freshly grated ginger
• 2 Tbs. oyster sauce
• 2 Tbs. salt (for softening cabbage)
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. fish sauce (aka patis)
• Other Ingredients:
• 50 wonton wrappers
• bowl of ½ c. water (used as glue for sealing potstickers)
• ½ c. canola oil

Instructions

1. Combine cabbage, 4 c. water, and salt in medium bowl and let sit for 15-20 minutes, tossing every 5 minutes to make sure all cabbage is softened. In larger bowl, combine all other filling ingredients. Drain and rinse cabbage, and add to meat mixture. Mix in thoroughly. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper to hold raw dumplings.
2. Assembling Potstickers: Place about 2 teaspoons of filling in center of wonton wrapper. Dip finger into water bowl, then line two adjacent sides of wrapper with water from finger. Fold the two dry sides of wrapper on top of the two water-lined sides and pinch closed (NOTE: make sure potsticker edge is completely sealed, otherwise the juices may run during cooking and your potstickers may dry out). At this point, your potsticker should look like a pudgy triangle. Fold each corner of the triangle in toward the center of the potsticker, using a little dab of water to ‘glue’ the corners down. Place assembled potsticker on parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
3. Cooking Potstickers: Pour about ¼ c. canola oil into the bottom of large sauce pan and bring to medium high heat. When pan is nice and hot and evenly coated, line the bottom of the pan with one layer of potstickers. We were able to fit about ½ of the batch into our pan at a time. Fry potstickers over high heat until the bottoms look golden brown, about 3-5 minutes. Once bottoms of dumplings look nice and crispy, add enough water to submerge the bottom half of the potstickers. Cover pan with lid tilted so that steam can escape. Continue to cook until all water evaporated from pan and you hear the dumplings start to sizzle again, which can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with either tongs or a spatula. If you are going to cook the whole batch in one go, place potstickers on foil-lined try (photo below), wipe out the bottom of pan with paper towel to get the crusty bits out, then add remaining ¼ c. of canola oil and start process again.
4. Saving Potstickers: If you’re not going to eat all of the potstickers in one sitting, put the tray of raw dumplings in the freezer overnight. Make sure potstickers are not touching, otherwise they will freeze together. Once they are completely frozen, place them in a large zip-lock bag (or portion into smaller bags) and keep in freezer for up to a month.
   

Dipping Sauce for Venison Potstickers

• ¼ cup light soy sauce
• ¾ tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 minced garlic clove, or more
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 teaspoon green onion ( thinly sliced)

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Use as dipping sauce.

Maybe ground goat is cheaper than osso bucco or chops?

Annie

Well, there's kid goat meat, and there's mutton. And it's the fat that carries the strongest flavor/aroma. American breeders are deliberately focused on raising very mild goat and lamb meat "because that what the consumer wants" -- in the US, anyway.

My spouse is from Hong Kong; as far as he's concerned, the older/gamier, the better. There have been some upscale restaurants where he had to ask me if the dish we were eating really was lamb/goat because it was so mild. We personally treat goat the way we treat lamb, and it's a very popular dish in the Afghani, Nepalese, and Tibetan restaurants here.

The Indian grocers in Berkeley CA have great spice mixes. I did a spur-of-the-moment marinade paste of tandoori mix spice blend, garam masala, ground cardamon, turmeric, agrodulce pimenton (because I stupidly bought an enormous tin of it and am trying to use it up), three different chile peppers, garlic, soya, and yoghurt. Made a great wet rub on lamb chops which I then fried.

Spouse flipped over it, saying "It's almost like the fried goat [which is a dry-fried curry of spicy seasoned chopped breast of goat] that my favorite Nepalese restaurant makes!"

If you're not seeing much fat on the goat, it's either young kid or very well-trimmed. At the halal butchers everybody WANTS the fatty cuts, because that's how you get the richest, funkiest flavor.

Lamb and goat offal is super-funky. One of our favorite French bistros serves a trio dish: they use goat when they can but can't always get it so often use lamb. You get a small sear-roasted tenderloin, a chunky coarse sausage, and pan-sauteed sweetbreads. The goat sweetbreads were too funky even for my spouse, but surprisingly I liked them a lot.

To us, the best use for the trimmings and tougher cuts/offal is....merguez sausage. We love, love, love merguez - the hotter, the better. So yummy with soft polenta and a scoop of properly made ratatouille. Yum!

Drat, it's 10p.m. and now I'm hungry again!!