Production 2

This may be one of the more interesting sections so far. As I have mentioned a number of times, Level 4 is split into 3 sections. Apparently they will be reorganizing and redistributing responsibility of these sections for the classes that follow, however, for now, there is buffet, which is strictly setting up for the 2 buffets that you produce while in that section. There is family meal, which, as its name suggests, is strictly providing food for everyone in the school to eat (including the nights of buffets since not everyone makes it to the buffets). And finally there is production the section I am in now. Production is the least strict section as far as guidelines of what you have to do. Of course the buffet allows creativity, but you are only working on your buffet. For production, you start your night by assessing the stock situation, and checking to see if you need to produce chicken stock or veal stock or a fumet. You also MUST break down the fish and chickens necessary for the restaurant. We’re supposed to have that done by 6:30, but with 3 people working on 3 different things, it gets complicated. Chef Janet understands that the stocks are important, but she actually lets us work on breaking down the proteins and she gets the stocks going. I think that’s really great of her so we can then focus on the more creative aspects which I am going to get into.

By the way, I broke down the cod. After a THOROUGH examination I only pulled out a couple of worms from the fish. I think that’s pretty good!! That is, pretty good that the fish only had 2 worms. It was still gross. The cod was pretty nice to fillet. I think I did a great job. I got all the pin bones out, cleaned it up nicely and skinned it nicely. I was pretty proud of it. I wasn’t super speedy, but hey, it was my first time doing it, and I was trying to do a great job for the guys in the restaurant. I can’t imagine when some of the knuckleheads in Level 3 come to level 4 and break down some busted chickens for us. We’ll see. I’m sure the chef will have something to say if we’re getting poor cuts.

So after all this, we delved right into our projects. We got our second brisket of beef, which I cleaned up and cured with the pastrami salt mixture. Carlos finished up the Boudin blanc we were making (ground it up, seasoned it and got it into sausage casings), and Steve got going on some cures for our ham and turkey breasts.

We literally injected brine with a huge syringe into the ham and turkey and watched the flesh pump up. I think its going to be great. The brines had all kinds of herbs and seasoning. We got those puppies submerged in brine, and now it’s the waiting game.

After dinner, Steve and I prepared two cures for bacon that we will be making. One cure was a molasses cure, the other, which I think will be better, was a brown sugar and maples syrup cure! How does that sound? And you know, it really wasn’t hard. Its something ANYONE can do. Provided of course you buy the belly fat and have the means to smoke it afterwards.

I think, however, the highlight of the night was deboning a whole chicken WITHOUT taking it apart. What’s that? You want details? Sure, why not.

So the first thing you do is cut the wing off at the second joint (as we normally do). Then you take out the wish bone, which, we learned a new method to do, which doesn’t tear into the flesh. Take your knife and scrape away at it. Don’t go jabbing in there and hacking away at the flesh. Just take your knife, scrape, and then use your finger to dig in and get the bone. It was a great new trick, and it worked well.

Once you have that out, prop the chicken up and look at its shoulder. Start cutting and scraping away the flesh. Detach the arm from the shoulder and keep making your way down the one arm bone. Soon you’ll be able to pop the arm bone right out. Get going on the other arm, then don the ribs and around the neck, spine and back. There will come to point when you need to flip it over and star from the bottom of the rib cage and then the thigh and legs. I guess I can’t rally describe it since it’s mostly a process of scraping against bone and cutting around joints. But I assure you, I have a beautifully boned chicken, intact, waiting for a mean stuffing. We’re thinking about stuffing it with seasoned ground pork, which would probably be delicious! She also gave us a brilliant idea of filling it with a portion of pork loin, surrounded by either ground pork or chicken, and then roasted. The beauty of it is being able to have a seemingly whole chicken and slicing across it as if it’s a boneless piece of tenderloin, eating almost every part. This makes a fantastic centerpiece for a fancy meal. You can even stuff it with a traditional stuffing if you’d like.

In all, this is a fun portion of the class. Even though we ran about 20 minutes late since we needed to break down the day time stocks, it was still very fun, informative and creative!