Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Pork

Tuesday we worked with pork. We worked in teams, me with Rico. I like partnering with her, because she kind of takes pity on me. I mean, I try to do my part, but she can tell this class really isn't a special skill area for me. Plus, she kind of enjoys standing up to Chef. And he takes it when she does. Although he still really pisses her off.

We had the loin and part of the butt. We had to cut pork chops, baby back ribs, two roasts, and stew meat. I did the ribs, and helped clean off fat and silverskin. Having a Muslim father, I really don't know very much about pork. Oh, I love me some bacon, but I've eaten pork only a couple times, and certainly don't know what chops and ribs are supposed to look like. So I needed lots of tips and we cut away.

Rico did the harder work - she had to remove the knuckles off the back bone, which takes really intricate knife work. And according to her, is extremely frustrating.

We cut the chops and ribs for the cafe

Lessons learned:

Pork bones can be trashed - Chef says nobody has a need for pork stock.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's awesome you decided to go to culinary school! I have to say though, I do love making broth from pork bones for Pho. The reason I'm commenting is because we're having a wild boar recipe contest open only to food professionals and culinary students and we'd love to have you enter a recipe (note: wild boar can be substited in most pork recipes). And if you have friends at school who would be interested, please pass this on. The prize is $500. I've linked to the contest through my name. Best of luck to you - I look forward to following your adventures!