Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Baby Grind with Me

Relax your mind take your time on me
Pretty Ricky - Grind With Me

Lesson 11- Forcemeat Stuffings- Part 1

Today we learned about making forcemeat stuffings. Forcemeat is made from a mixture of ground lean and fat meat "forced" through a grinder. The fat is necessary to grease the grinder, and you would start the grinder by forcing some chunks of pork fatback through before putting other pieces of meat through. This is the stuffing used in dishes such as sausages and pâtés, although we are just going to wrap the forcemeat with tenderized veal.

Stuffed veal rolls with glazed vegetables

Perhaps I still have a juvenile mind, but  when I saw the demo chef and assistant forcing meat down grinder I totally understand what people mean when they say "Laws are like sausage. It is better not to see them being made."The way the meat was forced out of the metal tubes all mushed together in a paste... I mean a fecal joke was just waiting to happen (it did, see below). It also didn't help that for whatever reason the grinder was going very slow with the food and the chef and assistant both pushed down really hard to force the meat through the system grinder for a good few minutes. Later on we found out it was because the grinder was set to its lowest setting, and after some adjustment the grinder processed through all the meat in short order.

I was supremely disappointing to learn that in our practical class the forcemeat would have been prepared for us already, and all we had to do was to marinate it and cook the damn thing. Maybe in the future I can try my hands on using a meat grinder.

We also learned how to make turned vegetables, which is this very complex way of cutting a large carrot into tiny bite size carrots shaped like an American football (or rugby, if you may). Do they not have baby carrots in France? Così should open a Parisian store and educate the masses here.


Quote from this class:
"I think the grinder is constipated. Just push harder! That's why they call it 'forcemeat'." -The translator providing colorful commentary as both the chef and assistant struggled to push meat through the grinder

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