Just add water for treat that melts in the mouth
Pulpy goat meat
Among the three signature goat meat dishes in the Zhangze area — pulpy goat meat, salted goat meat slice and goat meat soup — pulpy goat meat earns the most public acclaim for its balanced mixture of skin and meat, its slippery and soft taste and its immediate melting in the mouth once you take a bite.
“When cooking pulpy goat meat, we use no ingredients but boiling water to soften the goat meat,” said Zhang Xinmei, a 50-year-old chef at Zhangze Goat Meat Manor.
Requiring no other ingredients than boiling water, making pulpy goat meat stresses the original fresh and fragrant taste of goat meat, therefore, a chef will be very picky when choosing food.
The prime part of a goat that tastes the best is the meat growing around the waist and below the ribs. The waist meat of a goat is perfect for making pulpy goat meat. A one-year-old goatling can yield about 20 kilograms of meat, but only 2 kilograms of waist meat can be used to make pulpy goat meat, according to Lin Weiying, general manager of Zhangze Goat Meat Manor.
To boil goat meat in a wooden barrel is a characteristic of the goat meat culinary art in Zhangze area and key for the fresh and fragrant taste of the goat meat.
“Many people, when dining at our restaurant, will take a look at this wooden barrel,” said Lin. “We connect the barrel with an iron wok before putting them further on a traditional rural Chinese stove. The barrel, standing about half a meter high, can be filled with two whole goats at once.
“We keep on heating the iron wok with a big fire, then use moderate fire to boil the meat for two to three hours. The goat meat can be removed with its goat meat smell in the wooden barrel and the meat tastes tenderer and the soup more fragrant,” said Lin.
Customers can dip the meat into soy bean sauce or eat with a bit of salt. No other ingredients are needed.
