The first day of class was pretty relaxed but since we only have 7 days we still had to jump right into cutting. In class at 6:15am and cutting until about 9:30 until clean-up and then lecture at 10:30am till noon. So the first thing was do a little ID on Beef or Bovine. Then he demoed how to take apart a giant Shoulder Clod which was pretty easy, and then trim and separate a Beef Top Round and finally, de-bone a Beef Shank. None of it was super tough but since it was the first day and was all new, nobody's was really good.
For reference, the left is the Shoulder Clod, the middle are 2 Beef Shanks and the right is the Beef Top Round (easy to ID because of the spot of meat in the fat on top). Taking apart those bad boys is a ton of work and takes more finesse than you would think. Anyway, the parts of the Shoulder Clod include the "Heart" of the Clod and the Top Blade (this is has a thin layer of collagen right through the middle). The Top Blade is sometimes separated into two little steaks from the collagen and we know them as Flat Iron's. Basically everything here is best cooked braised or stewed except the Top Round which can be roasted (typical deli roast beef comes from here).
Day 2 was still a Beef day since there is so much beef. This time we did the more obvious cuts that everyone knows, the Beef Tenderloin (filet mignon) and the Strip Loin (NY Strips and tender roasts). We had to trim and clean the Tenderloin which really easy but just takes some time removing fat and connective tissue. Then was the Strip Loin which was a bit more challenging. You can leave the bone-in but for our purposes we de-boned
it (kinda tough) and then
cut one part into Strip Steaks and one part we tied into a roast.The left is a package of Flank Steaks on top and a Beef Tenderloin on the bottom. Then on the right is a Boneless StripLoin that can be cut into steaks.
And right below is nearly every cut of Beef from a whole cow carcass broken down into the parts of the 4 main primal cuts of Beef (Chuck, Rib, Loin and Round from head to tail). The left is the Loin (top 4 pieces of meat) and the Round (bottom 2 pieces). The round is missing a few cuts but the Loin is basically there. On the right is the Chucke which is also basically all there (top 4 cuts) and then the Rib which is missing some cuts as well (bottom 3).
Day 3 was badass... although we only cut veal cutlets (Day 3 was Veal Day), we watched our chef break down an entire veal carcass. It was very cool and I wish I had a video to show you. But regardless we cut lots of veal cutlets out of the Top Round and Shoulder Clod (veal has the same cuts as Beef seeing as it is just a baby cow). Turns out I'm pretty good at doing this since Chef said my cutlets were excellent.
Day 4.
So the left is a whole side half of a pork carcass and the right is a Grass-Fed Cow (we got a local one in to compare with the normal Grain-Fed).So Day 4 was Pork. It was a tough day, definitely. We took a center cut pork loin de-boned, cleaned and fabricated the whole thing into a piece of meat that could be rolled and tied into a BRT (boned, rolled, tied) Roast. I did pretty well but it was challenging. The rest of the day wasn't so hard but it was a day full of a lot of cutting in general. Then we took a Pork Boston Butt (pork shoulder) and boned it and separated it into pieces to try and cut it into cubes. This is difficult because there is so much fat running through the meat that you only get about 40% of the meat to be usable cubes but luckily for us, all trim from pork is basically usable for sausage. I don't have any pork pictures unfortunately but a Boston Butt is a large, square piece and a center cut rack is a large, long rack with the rib bones in.
Days 5 and 6 were both easy days too. Day 5 was lamb day and the only thing we did was tie a little lamb roast and French a Rack of Lamb (clean the bone that sticks out to give a nice clean presentation). Then again we cut pork cubes cause apparently they needed a whole lot of these for the last few days to some lovely Meat Music provided b our chef, which made it fun.
Day 6 was poultry and again we didn't do anything too hard. We trussed a pretty small chicken (trussed is tying it) and we broke apart the entire thing into bone-in breasts, boneless legs and wings. Once you get the hang its really easy and I did 4 of them in about 15-20 minutes. So if you ever want to know how to completely break down a turkey or chicken, just ask me.
Our last day was a freebie, sausage day. We just ground pork trim with seasoning and ice and then pumped it into casing to make sausages which we tasted, Italian and Breakfast, both good. Then we made pork cubes... again... I'm really good at making pork cubes.
So that was my week of meat class. I really enjoyed it and it was a pretty easy class. The weekend is boring. I really have nothing planned except for a frisbee practice on Monday (we have off). So starting Tuesday I enter Skill Development 1: Basic Stock and Sauces (and Knife Cuts). I'm super pumped for this class since this is the beginning of actually learning how to cook and prepare food.
Other than that, life has been pretty good here. Extremely tiring, but good. Oh and I got A-'s in both Meat and Fish which is pretty good since I'm the only one in my class who did that in Fish and I think 1 of 2 that did in Meat. Its funny how well you do in something when you really enjoy it. Hopefully everyone is enjoying the fantastic weekend weather as much as me.
Chef Werblin
ps. I moved my room to down the hall with a friend of mine cause my old room was awful. Pretty much the best move ever... and I'm no longer on the bottom bunk
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