PART TWENTYSEVEN: RAW MEAT, SHARP KNIVES AND CONCENTRATION

WATCH YOUR FINGERS

I started to work in the meat section and I was excited about it. This was a new part of my training as a chef apprentice. First I had to learn all the different meats like Beef, Pork, Veal, Lamb, Chicken, Quail, Turkey. Next we had to learn all the different cuts like sirloin, filet, shoulder, leg, belly and all the other cuts. Then we had to learn how to work with liver, kidneys, tongue, beef tripe, hocks, neck, back. 

Learning how to use a proper butchers knife from meat knife to boning knife. How to sharpen the knives and how to use them without cutting my fingers off. 

Concentration was paramount, watching my fingers while using a very sharp knife cutting meat. 

In the beginning, I would get easy jobs like cutting meat strips for stirfry or dicing meats for stews.

Then I had to learn how to bone a chicken. Boning simply means removing the bones from the meat without damaging the meat. Working a boning knife alongside the bones and seperate them as closest to the bone from the meat. Boning a chicken is not hard to learn. What really matters is how to handle a razor sharp boning knife. Where to have your hand and how to hold the chicken while you work the boning knife with the other hand.

 Once I was able to bone a chicken well, I had to go to bigger peaces of meat. Because we did not bone a lot of meat while I was working on the meat section, I was going to work with proper butchers later in the year. 

Portion control, vacum packing and date the meats

I was now about 3 weeks in the meat section. We had a big vacum machine where every piece or should I say every cut of meat like porterhouse steaks, t-bone steaks, eye filet mignons, eye filet steaks, and some of the diced meats where vacum packed. The weight had to be correct with a 5 gm error margin and not more or less. Once the meat was vacum packed, we had to stick the date of packaging on the outside of the vacum packed meat. We called that portion control. It had to match the quantity calculated in the food cost for that dish.

Once all the meat was cut, vacum packed and a date sticker applied on to the bag, the meat went immediately into the cool room. The temperature in that walk in cool room was between 2 to 4 degrees Celsius. 

The chefs from the sattelite kitchens would then pick up some of the portioned meats, checking the dates to make sure that older goes first before the fresh stuff.

The chef in charge of the meat section would keep track which cuts run out and order more for next day to be portioned, packed and dated.

Now I was getting into the portion cut of meats. Every veal schnitzel cut would weight 160 grams. I had to learn to cut schitzels each 160 grams. That was not easy but after a while I got it. Every schnizel I cut wrong could be cut into srips for pan fried dishes with veal. Slowly but surely I would move to other cuts like porterhouse, filet steaks, ribeye steaks, t-bone steaks. 

I worked for about 6 weeks on the meat section with about 3 cuts to my fingers, luckely only little cuts. Later in my apprenticeship I would get the odd day here and there on the meat section. 

Next week I share with you my experience working with blood thirsty butchers for 4 weeks. Till then remember to love life and eat some nice food.