Day seventy

Half of hog to break down

 How pork is different from beef?

As scheduled, we have moved to a pork butchery. We have today a guest speaker (or guest butcher - sounds better), the guy from the American Pork Association. He was doing demo how to break down pork carcass American way and European way.

For the consumers the difference is not so visible as for the professionals. The main difference is in the loin, or how we separate it. In American style we cut it for three pieces rib eye, tenderloin, and porterhouse. European style is to keep loin whole. Also in Europe instead of making chops, they prefer take the loin from the bones and handle boneless loin.

Buying pork you should pay attention that pork is not PSE. PSE stands for pale, soft, exudative. This meat will be very tough after cooking, with watery taste, absence of flavor. Pork should be nice pink or dark pink color and has certain amount of marbling. In case you have concerns about your diet and trying to cut fat consumption, may be it's better to choose veal instead of pork, or other type
of meat.

As for the difference between pork and beef, the latest is generally less fatty. Pork is valued for the natural fat and we can do so many exciting things with it. Bacon is probably the most important, we can not imagine Saturday branch without bacon. Pork also has less really tough cuts, where slow braising is required.

Lego! We assembled it back! 

Another class we have today was management. We have a project to do for a small group of people. We suppose to interview somebody in the industry and then to have a presentation for a class regarding our topic. We want to interview the Dean, but he has not confirmed his availability yet.

At work (French Bistro Boot Camp) people today made baguette, coq au vin, short ribs, mussels, salads, fried brie, mash potato. They did not make rice pilaf (it was burned). Today the biggest complain was that they are not allowed to drink wine at the dinner. This is a school, there is alcohol only for cooking...