Cabrito () is the name in both Spanish and Portuguese for
roast goat kid in various Iberian and Latin American cuisines.
Argentina
Cabrito is also a regional specialty of
Córdoba Province in
Argentina, especially the town of
Quilino, which has a
festival in its honour. "Chivito" differs from "cabrito" in that chivito is a slightly older animal with less tender meat. The chivito has already begun to eat solid foods, whereas the cabrito is still a suckling.
Mexico
It is a regional specialty of the city of
Monterrey
Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...
,
Mexico, and the surrounding state of
Nuevo Leon, based on the
Jewish cuisine of the founders of the city.
In northern Mexico, cabrito is cooked in a variety of ways:
* ''
Cabrito al pastor'': The best-known and perhaps most popular form. The whole carcass is opened flat and impaled on a
spit. The spit is then placed next to a bed of glowing embers and roasted slowly in the open air without
seasoning
Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, salts, and/or sugar, intended to enhance a particular flavour.
General meaning
Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". Ho ...
s other than the light scent it will absorb from the slow-burning charcoal.
* ''Cabrito al horno'' (
oven
upA double oven
A ceramic oven
An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been us ...
-roasted cabrito): Toasted slowly in an oven at low temperatures. A number of variants of this preparation have emerged, including some very elaborate processes that involve applying seasonings and covering the cooking meat at specific times to produce a tasty and juicy treat.
* ''Cabrito en salsa'' (cabrito in
sauce): The animal is cut into portions,
browned in
oil and
braised
Braising (from the French word ''braiser'') is a combination-cooking method that uses both wet and dry heats: typically, the food is first browned at a high temperature, then simmered in a covered pot in cooking liquid (such as wine, broth, coco ...
in a
tomato-based sauce with
onions,
garlic
Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...
and
green chilies
Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...
, and other seasonings until tender.
* ''Cabrito en sangre'' (cabrito in
blood), sometimes ''fritada de cabrito'': A less common preparation in which the blood of the animal is collected when it is
slaughtered and it becomes the basis for the sauce that the goat is braised in, along with the animal's
liver,
kidneys, and
heart, and other seasonings. The end product is tender cabrito in a rich, very dark sauce.
Portugal and Brazil
In Portuguese, the name ''cabrito'' is used for a goat kid (not just roasted) in
Northeast Region, Brazil, especially in the
Sertão Nordestino
The ''sertão'' (, plural ''sertões'') is the "hinterland" or "backcountry". In Brazil, it refers both to one of the four sub-regions of the Northeast Region of Brazil (similar to the specific association of " outback" with Australia in Englis ...
and in Portugal. The goat being about 3 months old is slow-cooked over a
charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
fire for about eight hours, turning it every 15-20
minute
The minute is a unit of time usually equal to (the first sexagesimal fraction) of an hour, or 60 seconds. In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds (there is a provision to insert a nega ...
s.
See also
*
List of goat dishes
*
List of Mexican dishes
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire occurred in the 16th century. The basic staples since then remain native foods such as corn, beans, squash and chili peppers, but the Europeans introduced many other foods, the most important of which were ...
References
Argentine cuisine
Brazilian cuisine
Goat dishes
Meat
Mexican cuisine
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