I had a wonderful weekend with my friend Vicki. She did however, tell me she has only read this blog once and it was too much information. I have heard from a couple of you telling me you enjoy the blog, so I am not sure what to think! Believe it or not, I do leave some of the things we learn out of the blog, otherwise it would be even longer! It has been a good study guide for me, and hopefully some of you have learned some new information along the way.
I started my final project for school yesterday after Vicki left. We have to choose a business (catering, personal chef, restaurant or bed and breakfast), come up with a business plan, a menu with recipes, then cost them all out. We also have to come up with a list of kitchen supplies/equipment we would need. It is due a week before graduation. We also had to choose a region in France or Italy to pattern our business menu around. My region is Tuscany (now a huge surprise to the people who know me!).
Today in lecture we started learning a little about food costing and the need to find the "yield" or the usable and saleable portion of purchased food. We should get more information on that tomorrow as we will need it for our project and right now, none of us can quite figure out exactly what we need to know!
Then Chef Dale talked about cuts of meat. 90% of the protein we consume is four legged (although he included chickens in that and as far as I know, chickens and turkeys only have two legs!). The different cuts that come from steer, lamb, veal and pigs are called primal cuts. The four primal cuts for beef are beef round, beef loin, beef rib and beef chuck. It seems that the industry is always looking for ways to market or sell meat and so they have come up with many different cuts of meat (some of which are the same meat, just different names) to sell us poor consumers. The other interesting bit of information I learned today was about veal. Veal is a by-product of the dairy field! Farmers want cows that can either provide milk or birth babies, so they keep the female cows but send the male cows off to be sold for veal.
Chef Dale also talked about grading beef. The three top grades of beef are Prime, Choice and Select. In order to be granted Prime cut status, you have to pay to have your beef graded. The grading is based on the amount of marbling in the meat between the 12th and 13th ribs. Prime accounts for 8-10% of beef sold and it is usually bought by hotels or restaurants as a special order item. Choice makes up about 20% of the beef sold and is what you find most commonly in restaurants and can sometimes be found at Costco or Sam's Club. Select cuts also make up 20% of beef sold and is what you find in grocery stores. The other 50% of beef sold is standard or utility. You see these cuts at buffets (i.e. prime rib buffets) and conventions where people do not want to pay high prices for meat.
Red meat is aged (beef and lamb). White meat is not aged (pork and veal). There are two types of aging: dry aging and wet aging. In dry aging, the meat is hung up in a humid and heat controlled environment for a period of time. Dry aged meat has what some people consider a "sour" taste, so if you do not know what you are eating, this meat is sometimes thought to be "bad". Wet aging is meat that is in a cryovac package with blood and fluid. It is generally sold by the box and should be protected from light. Wet aging is the most common.
We will start to cover specific regions of France and Italy, about one per day until the end of the school term. Today we talked about the Veneto, which is a region in northeast Italy. The Veneto is bordered by Switzerland to the north, Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea to the east, Emilia Romagna to the south and Lombardy to the west. The Veneto is a fertile plain between two rivers, the Po River and the Tagliamento River. This plain extends all the way to the Adriatic Sea to the east, so not only is a large amount of fish and seafood seen in their cuisine but the plains allow a great amount of produce to be grown. Arborio rice is grown along the Po River. Venice is the capital city of the Veneto. At one time Venice was the home of Marco Polo and Venice soon gained control of the spice trade. The use of many spices is still seen in the cuisine of this area today, which makes it quite different than say, food from Sicily. Wines from the Veneto include Soave, Prosecco, Valpolicella and Amarone. The cuisine of this area ranges from peasant type stews of game and beans to more refined dishes of Tiramisu, Risotto, and Carpaccio.
Lunch today was a first course of Fresh Pasta with Braised garlic and Balsamico. Our entree was Veal Scaloppini with Braised Radicchio and Gorgonzola Potato Cakes. I was in charge of the radicchio. I quartered the radicchio, cored it, then put the quarters into a hotel pan. I put lemon juice on them, salt and pepper, then a layer of brodo so we could steam or braise them in the oven. Once they were done, the liquid was drained and Grana cheese grated on top of the quarters. The radicchio was finished under the broiler. The radicchio has a somewhat bitter taste, but all the above food paired together makes a wonderful pairing. Dessert was a "Puzzle Cake" on of the students made as a special project. It is a six layer cake that alternates between vanilla and chocolate cake, then has sections cut out of it, frosted and reinserted so that the inside of the cake looks like Teutonic plates in the earth. Very cool looking! And tasty!
Then it was time to clean up and go home. I made some cookies tonight as well as the Baklava muffins (Carl's request). I am determined to get this high altitude baking down! Either things do not rise (or rise well) or they spread out too much. I'm working on it!
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