It's 9am and I'm covered in blood. Day two and we're already breaking down beef shanks, and large shoulder clods (semi-primals cuts from the primal round and chuck respectively).
shank
The shank has a large bone running along the side of it as seen here: so what do we do? We have to remove it with a sharp boning knife. Once the bone is removed Chef comes over to check the amount of meat left on it and deems it acceptable or not, along with evaluating your piles of both usable trim, and unusable trim. Now that the bone is removed you begin to denute the shank--esentially you just remove the fat and the silver skin from the meat. To remove the silver skin you cut a "tab" underneath it and pull that tab over the blade of your knife. With the blade angled upwards you glide the knife under the silver skin to strip it off the meat in strips. Lastly, we sliced and cubed the shank into 1 inch cubes before putting them in a vacuum sealed bag for storage.
Another demo and my group and I are set to break down a shoulder clod segments of: top blade, teres major, no-name (seriously its called the no-name), and heart of the clod.
Shoulder clod
Truss me, I know what I'm doing...
I cut off the pieces and my team and I got to work fabricating and trimming down their own cut from the shoulder before trussing (tying) each piece with kitchen string. If you don't know what I mean when I say trussing basically it looks like this photo on the right:
Yesterday was my first day of Meat Fabrication and it was a radical change from the more laid back approach adopted by our CMC Chef Speckamp. My new chef, Chef Elia implements a more militaristic teaching style, which was apparent right from the get go. After our class had failed to set up part of the meat room the way he wanted it for lecture we already were setting a poor first impression. It took all of 30 seconds for everyone in my class to display the wide-eyed "oh shit this guy is serious" look. Once we sat down, he asks in a calm but stern voice, "does anyone have a cellphone?" no one raises their hand. At this point where all scared shitless. I couldn't help but relive a scene in my head from on of my favorite movies of all time: Inside man....
"I'll ask again, does ANYONE HAVE A CELL PHONE ON THEM RIGHT NOW??"slowly one or two brave souls raise their hand (mine included) and he holds out a bin to put them in, telling us we would get them back later. That was it. No penalty. We were safe. He looks up and smiles, "Now, does anyone ELSE have a cellphone?" (the whole class raises their hand) This is my first impression of Chef Elia.
We get a tour of our meat class, and the surrounding meat room. Our MIT (manager in training), a short red-headed girl named Lena shows us the dish station and the walk-in coolers. Once we get back to the classroom, Chef dives into lecture. It is here where he starts to loosen up a bit, making a joke here an there, telling us about his catering gig, all the while explaining the ins an outs of the meat industry. A wave of relaxation wafts over me when I realize the man ain't so bad. Chef Elia never went to college, because he graduated from the "school of hard knocks". He lectures us on the importance of education since that lack of paper limits how far he can rise (to an extent) in his field. Elia comes off ultra intimidating only because he has an old school attitude. Everything he has he had to earn for himself, and the hard way. Once you start to understand the man behind the iron mask so to speak, you can see the much awesomer (no way that's a word), more passionate side of Chef. Blah, blah, blah you want pictures, I know I know...
The first 4 days we are learning almost everything there is to learn about beef. This mega chunk is called the primal round. There are 4 major primal sections of the cow--round, lion, rib, chuck with 3 minor primal sections--plate, foreshank, and brisket. Each primal has sections called semi-primals (that's a for a later post). The primal round is basically the back leg of the animal...the ass check if you will.
Chef Elia breaking down the huge primal round
When demo started he issued out our phones and encouraged everyone to take as many pictures as we wanted (while also remembering to pay attention). This was refreshing because in fundamentals I had to sneak pics of Chef Speckamp's demos (I'm very sneaky when I need to be. Ask my mom).
I believe this is the top round--a semi-primal cut from the big primal round Chef Elia broke down
The semi-primal cuts from the primal round: top round, bottom round, eye round, knuckle, heel, and shank
I know you won't really understand what all these cuts of the animal are but IDing them also helps me study so the learning process goes both ways here.
Alright that's all folks! Stay tuned for part II of my pleased to "Meat" You XIV part series
When faced with the dilemma of tackling the mountain of laundry on my bed or blogging to you folks I clearly chose the latter of the two...the things that I do for you people! This post is all about new beginnings, because today is the start of a semester! I am officially on the block schedule (they grow up so darn fast don't they). Being the young scholar that I am, I was able to X out of both writing and business mgmt for the next 9 weeks; leaving me with only meat fabrication followed by fish fabrication for the next six weeks. The train don't stop there either (pardon my broken English). Since I have to pry myself out of bed promptly at 5am Monday through Friday, this also means I am done with class at 9:30 am. That's right, while all my friends are waiting around to go to mgmt at 3:30 I'll be exercised up with hw completed, and maybe even a nap in there for shits and giggles before they even go to class (suckas).
Now that I have all this free time on my hands (most of it will be dictated towards finding a job in the area and landing an externship for the summer), I have ample time to fool around with this blog a little bit. In laments terms: you get to reap all the benefits of my new focus and direction.
I was thinking about documenting each of my days in meat fab (14 total) so that my readers can get a sense of what I actually do here. Keep a lookout for Pleased to "Meat" You parts I through XIV...oh yeah its a series....
PLUS:
EQUALS:
What I'll be doing for the next three weeks...stay tuned.
There has been this unsolved mystery, nay, a conspiracy which dates all the way back to Sophomore year of college part I. The crime: sticking peanut butter in the FREAKING FRIDGE! Peanut butter under no circumstances belongs in the fridge, no matter what. Even that all natural stuff I used to eat (which my mom insists on putting in the fridge because it has no "preservatives"...its nuts and oil mom, I think itll be fine) I'm sorry for being over dramatic here, its just that people putting peanut butter in the fridge really grinds my gears!
PLUS
EQUALS
"Someone put the peanut butter in the fridge"
LEADING TO:
"Wait a second...."
FOLLOWED IMMEDIATELY BY:
"WHO DOES THAT!?!?!"
We wake up one morning in our apartment after one of those college nights nobody really remembers too much. Someone opens the fridge and finds the peanut butter on one of the shelves next to the random assortment of things we kept in there (probably expired milk, 83 varieties of condiments, and a bag of wine). Nobody fessed up, so suddenly every body's a suspect. Immediately I started looking at my other roommates for telltale signs of a guilty conscience, but alas they revealed nothing. I live with 3 sociopaths apparently...These are the suspects, and for the sake of argument I will include myself.
???
The next few days everyone was on edge. No one could be trusted, it was a classic Clue scenario. You never knew if you were going to wake up with a horses head in your bed sheets or a cut off finger on the counter top with the words "REDRUM" written in blood on the wall. The scariest part about this whole debacle is that the suspect is still at large. If there's a criminal out there putting peanut butter in the fridge there's no telling what hell do next. I have the worlds greatest crime solvers on the case, knocking on doors, reviewing the facts, collected statements, obtaining alibis, and asking the hard questions. Hopefully one day we can put this all to rest...
We have just one suggestion for the culpret: RUN AND HIDE!
I don't follow a lot of food blogs these days, in fact any of the days for that matter....You would think that if I love doing this so much naturally I would follow a lot of other food blogs to draw inspiration and creativity from. I follow three. I don't know why I follow them. I never read them. The truth is, its not that I think other food blogs are lame, I just don't have the time.
Earlier today I was boogie-boarding through the world wide web and I started looking at some other food blogs. I stumbled upon one that was refreshing because it was run by a girl closer to my age and not some turtleneck wearing mom who wants to teach everyone about "whole grains" (sorry moms). I perused through her blog, reading a post here and there, clicking on the vast array of tabs displayed at the top, reading recipes she posted, etc etc. To my dismay it only took me a minute to realize that her food blog was better than mine. And I'm not talking the quintessential sports movie "we overcame adversity and unified as a team only to lose by 1 point in the last second" kinda close. No, it was more of the "Apollo Creed vs Ivan Drago" type close. And I was Apollo Creed. Yeah, it was a closed casket...
In order to prevent all six of my followers from jumping ship and following the girl I'm talking about, she will forever remain "Jane Doe". I spent another 10 minutes or so analyzing the layout, it was almost perfect. She even monetized the site! I mean, I had no idea you could blog that good. Reminds me of the first time Clapton heard Hendrix play live:
"There was also curiosity from the emergent powerhouse of British blues:
Cream and Eric Clapton. There was a particular night when Cream allowed
Jimi to join them for a jam at the Regent Street Polytechnic in central
London. Meeting Clapton had been among the enticements Chandler had used
to lure Hendrix to Britain: "Hendrix blew into a version of [Howlin'
Wolf's] 'Killing Floor'," recalls Garland, "and plays it at breakneck
tempo, just like that – it stopped you in your tracks." Altham recalls
Chandler going backstage after Clapton left in the middle of the song
"which he had yet to master himself"; Clapton was furiously puffing on a
cigarette and telling Chas: 'You never told me he was that fucking good.'"
To be fare to myself, we really do have different styles all together. Hers was more geared towards providing actual recipes, and educating her followers. I would like to say mine is more plot driven? I give you stories that are fueled by my passion for food. That's all I got.
I would imagine that upon seeing the words "Molecular Gastronomy" my dad probably closed his laptop and went to work on his weather station. For all of you who don't know what that term means, basically it entails infusing food with SCIENCE. Terms get tossed around like "agar agar", "sodium algenate" "spherification" and "culinary foam"...all things my dad probably sees as the devils work.
In a nutshell molecular gastronomy is foods like this:
"spheres" of a liquid made with sodium algenate
Made by people like this:
Grant Achatz
Ferran Adria
When it comes to food, my dad is a traditional meat and potatoes kinda guy (crab cake appetizer and filet mignon entree every time like clock work) and the term molecular gastronomy gets lumped into the category of: "please don't make me sit through this for more than a nano-second" along with things like Stephen Colbert, and Seth Rogan (seriously, if you bring any of these things up to my dad he will probably leave the room). Everyone has their things they can't stand and for my dad these are those things.
The part that I cant grasp though is why? If you know my dad, hes not just a doctor, but a man of science. He enjoys solving puzzles, especially of the electronic type. If your computer has a virus or the X-box displays that "red ring of death" my dad seems to actually enjoy fixing them. In another lifetime my dad works for tech support I am convinced...so naturally a man of science would be fascinated by the new scientific revolution we are experiencing through food right? Wrong. I don't blame him, and I can't fault him. Its a new age in food that most people don't understand. For the most part, I don't understand it.There's a speech a mob bosses delivers in one of the batman movies that accurately sums everything up:
"This is a world you'll never understand. And you always fear … what you don't understand."
Read on to see what this all means...plus TONS OF PICTURES (ACTION SOUNDS)
Ahhh finally, I get to write about the infamous "Rossi's Deli": Zagot-rated "best Deli Hudson Valley" since the dawn of time. My good friend Pbish used to go to Marist down the road and when I texted him about it he replied, "ahh the best" so I knew I was in good hands. Its a small, cramped deli filled with preserved meats, huge hocks of prosciutto, ham, etc. Run by the godmother manning the register and her 4 Italian sons, I felt this was as close to an authentic NY deli I was going to find outside of the city. Finding myself menu-flustered I kept deferring to the next person in line to decided what I wanted. Intimidated by their hard New York style deli demeanors, I finally ordered a large panini (which I would later regret not getting the small) with roast pork, red peppers, spicy spread, and mozzarella on a toasted freshly made focaccia loaf.
chocolate canolis filled with nutella, whattt??
THE SOUP NAZI!!!!
Zeth on the left (you can find him in the hiking post about conquering the devil) Anthony aka "the swan" on the right
The first thing that came to mind when I tore through the bag which revealed this behemoth: "...oh fuck" It was a cool day, but it was sunny out an we thought screw it were too hungry to drive back to campus and eat so we crammed onto the small table outside and gorged ourselves like it was the last night before we all turned vegan or something...I gotta be honest with you, I have no idea what that actually means? All I know is that that this panini carried enough weight to break a mans jaw if used as a blunt force instrument...
