Goats helped settle America.
Not kidding: According to Robb Walsh, author of The Tex-Mex Cookbook, goats were the preferred diet of common folk in Europe, so when Columbus sailed to the New World on his second voyage in 1493 he brought goats for meat, cheese, and milk--along with Spanish shepherds to make it all happen. They brought sheep, as well, but they were raised for wool, not eaten at dinnertime.
In his memoir, Are You Really Going to Eat That?, Walsh describes a memorable cabrito
