Porky Delight! Hog Fabrication Demo

The Culinary Institute of America has many student groups that focus on some aspect of the industry. We have the Slow Cooking Club, The Modernist Cuisine Society, The Baking and Pastry Society and much more! This past week, two of the said clubs, Charcuterie Club and Slow Cooking Club, joined forces and organized a whole hog fabrication demo for the student body.

FUN FOOD FACT #728

Charcuterie, from chair 'flesh' and cuit 'cooked', is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products that include but not limited to bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, head cheese, pancetta, and prosciutto.

So this past Monday was a Special Projects Day, which means students get the day off to work on special assignments while chef instructors and professors work on some academic planning. After meeting up and finishing the assignments assigned to us, some friends and I headed over to the DK Theatre to check out this Whole Hog Fabrication we've been hearing about all week. BEE TEE DUB, fabrication is just a fancy word that means to butcher, clean and portion meat. We walk in and and in front of us at the demo kitchen was....

TA-DAAA...

It's name was Charles. The next hour and a half or so was then occupied by two awesome chefs that teach here. Using one half of the pig, one chef demonstrated the classic American fabrication methods, the ways one would fabricate the hog if one were to use it to make classic American style food. Loin, hock, fat back, bacon, etc. Then the other chef, using the OTHER side of Charles here, showed us how to fabricate the hog using traditional Austrian cuts.

Taking half of Charles to chill in the back.

Boning the Ribs...

Austrian Method for the Charcuterie Club.

It was kinda cool to see how differently they could slice up this pig, depending on what they planned on using the pig for. For example, the American style had special cuts just for the different segments of the ribs because I mean c'mon...who doesn't love a plate of delicious, melt in your mouth, fall of the bone ribs? The Austrian method however, just boned the ribs out entirely. They don't do ribs! Luckily they make up for it with delicious cured meats. We're going to sample those later on this month...jealous? >=]

Banquet Meal

Mache (Lamb's Lettuce) and roasted eggplant salad with prosciutto and salami

Seared Strip Steak with pomme purèe and sautèed string beans

Vanilla Panna Cotta, orange supremes, and a oranger ginger sauce.

Next Entry: Sweet Sassy Molassey! Chocolate and Candy Ribbons Demo

Classes Start!

"If more of use valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

Wanna know who said that? Freaking J.R.R. Tolkien! 

My classes for this block are awesome. I have Introduction to Gastronomy, Product Knowledge, Culinary Mathematics, and Food Safety. This is probably the first time in a very long while that I can stay focused in class and am actually interested in what I'm learning. Didn't even nod off! Not even once!

Intro to Gastronomy teaches the science and history of food and cooking. Greek lesson! "Gastro" means belly or stomach. "Nomos" means rules or laws. So this class is also about "Belly Rules". So in this class, we're going to study different people that played key roles in the way food culture and cooking has developed over the course of history. We will also look into food trends, taboos, fears, how food reacts to cooking. Finally, we will develop and map out our own palates. Yea if you guys thought I was a food nerd before...wait till I get back! Fine, I promise I'll control myself.

Our instructor asked us this question in class today. I went with noodles. How about you?

We did a chocolate  tasting in class. Yup.

Product Knowledge is exactly as it sounds. The class aims to further our knowledge of all sorts of produce and dairy. How to recognize it, how to determine the quality of the product, flavor profiles and pairing. We have to be able to recognize by sight, smell, and taste. This may seem simple. An apple looks like an apple, an orange looks like an orange right? By the end of the class, we have to be able to distinguish between a Stayman Winesap apple and a Northern Spy apple, how they different in taste and what methods they are best prepared for consumption. CRAZY! Later on for the seafood identification and fabrication class, we'll have to be able to recognize over 100 different types of fish by sight, classify them, and know the proper technique to fabricate them for cooking. It's going to be freaking awesome! I am totally not being sarcastic either.

Food break! This was lunch on the first day of classes. I know, right? Bwahaaha!

Seared/roasted venison, steamed Broccoli, and a baked potato

Food Safety is pretty straight forward. As chefs and hopefully as future executive chefs and restaurant owners, we have to learn the ins and outs of proper food safety. Food borne illness prevention and other information and practices to help keep staff healthy and to ensure that restaurant patrons leave with a fond memory and not a hospital visit. I have to admit, some aspects of this class is going to be pretty gross and will definitely make me question eating the leftover pizza next time we call for delivery. (I'm probably still going to.) In this class we will learn about cooking, storing, cooling, and heating temperatures. We will study the different potential diseases caused for common food borne pathogens. We'll also look into the proper ways to store food and clean equipment. Finally, and this part is key, we'll learn preventative measures to ensure no one gets sick from our food.

Lastly, we have culinary mathematics. This class should be pretty simple. We have to learn all the commonly used unit conversions. We will also do something called costing, which is how to calculate how much a serving of food will cost to produce. This will be new but very important to learn for the industry. I think we will also have to learn about purchasing and some other stuff but the important one is the costing. K, Dinner time!

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, candied carrot garnish, and a raspberry puree

Dim Sum platter: siu mai, pot sticker, egg rolls, braised short rib, and stuffed peppers

From the Foods of Asia Kitchen: Moo Shoo Pork, fried rice, Braised Tofu

These pictures are kinda blurry...I need to either find myself a better camera or start bumming the pictures from friends that sneak pictures too...k bye!






Next Entry: Porky Delight! Whole Hog Fabrication Demo