IF YOU buy a goat from your friendly local halal butcher, he will leave the heart, liver and kidneys attached. Offal spoils quickly; if it passes the sniff test, the meat is good.

Few Americans want to take that chance. Ask a typical American what he thinks of goat and he’ll imagine “a gnarly-looking old billy goat with long horns on top of a car chewing on an old tin can,” says J.J. Jones, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University. Some may believe it has a gamy flavour. This is true of older goats, but a young cabrito has a clean, grassy, herbal flavour, sweeter and less greasy than beef. It also boasts fewer calories and less cholesterol than beef, chicken, pork or lamb.

Finding reliable goat-consumption statistics is hard; the creatures are often slaughtered privately rather than in large abattoirs. But the trend is clearly up, thanks to immigration from goat-eating cultures. Native diners, too, are growing more adventurous. Goat is not yet popular enough to be worth factory-farming, and that appeals to foodies. From 1987 to January 2013 the number of meat goats on American farms rose from roughly 415,000 to 2.3m. Production is highest in the south-east, particularly Texas, but the number slaughtered is highest in New Jersey, which has large Arab, Latino and South Asian populations.

David Martin, who owns a goat-meat distributor called Gotcha Goat in Georgia, is trying to popularise goat burgers and goat lasagne. He complains that home cooks remain wary. “People think of it as an exotic meat”, says Mr Martin, “that has to be prepared in an exotic fashion.” It is enough to get his goat.