Some body asked me to write on Pork as it's grilling and smoking
Pork—the Great White Meat

The modern-day hog is a perfect example of proper breeding and feeding techniques. It is often said that “the only thing you throw away when you butcher a hog is the tail and its squeal.” Speaking as a sausage-maker, I agree with that statement.

Pork has great potential and much versatility, and many leading chefs are using it on their menus. In the garde manger kitchen, pork is the most popular and most used meat. More than 80% of all sausages are made with pork. Good butchers use pork and maximize their sales volume because of the versatility and customer acceptance of this product.

The hog carcass is simply broken down from head to the tail sequentially. Here is the procedure, step-by-step.

Dissection of pork
1. Remove the head, then remove the cheeks and the fat and brains, and make head cheese.
2. Remove the two shoulders by cutting away each shoulder. Next, remove the Boston butt—the upper part of the shoulder. The lower piece is processed by removing the hock, boning out the remaining bones and turning it into a country ham.
3. Remove the belly, and square it off. Later, you can smoke and cure the belly into bacon.
4. Remove the legs, and remove the pelvic bones and trotters (feet). Hind legs may be cured and smoked as hams or used uncured as fresh hams—this is where the famous roast leg of pork comes from.
5. Split the loins, remove the fillets and cut into pork chops for grilling. If you decide not to cut chops, bone the whole loin and use for roasting or slice into medallions.

Cuts of pork
Leg (le cuissot)        roasting and stewing                  15 lbs.
Shoulder (I'epaule)
Loin (la longe)            grilling and roasting                18 lbs.
Spare rib (l’echine)        barbeque grilling                  3 lbs.
Boston butt (l’epaule/plat de cotes)         sausages      8 lbs.
Head (la tête)            head cheese                              10 lbs.
Feet (le pied)            pickling                                     2 lbs.
   
Signs of quality
Pork should have lean flesh and be pale pink with fine texture. The fat should be white, firm and smooth, and not excessive. The bones should be relatively small, firm and pinkish. The skin or rind should be smooth and free of hair.   


Bacon
During the last 20 years, the practice of using the whole carcass of a hog for sides of bacon has ceased. The only parts of a hog that are now cured are legs, bellies and shoulders. The trotters and shanks are still in demand, especially in various ethnic cultures. In Europe, full sides of a hog are cured, split into five pieces, and sold either completely or in joints.

Below are both the American and European versions of bacon cuts. Bacon can be baked, grilled, fried or boiled. In America, most bacon is either grilled or fried. The eye of the pork loin is used to create Canadian bacon. In Europe, a product that compares with Canadian bacon is rashers. On both continents, bacon is served at breakfast, bunch, lunch and dinner. Ham hocks are used to flavor several dishes, and in some areas of the United States, is the main protein served because of its low cost.

Cuts of bacon
AMERICAN
Ham        grilling/baking    cured wet or dry
Belly              bacon                          cured wet or dry
Canadian     grilled                   cured wet or dry
Hock             soups                           cured wet or dry

EUROPEAN
Collar        grilling                  4.50 kilos             9.9 lbs.               cured/smoked
Hock          grilling                 4.50 kilos             9.9 lbs.               cured/smoked
Back           grilling                 9 kilos                19.8 lbs.              cured/smoked
Streaky           grilling             4.50 kilos             9.9 lbs.              cured/smoked
Ham                                         7.50 kilos          16.5 lbs.              cured/smoked

Signs of quality
On properly cured bacon, there should be no stickiness, and the bacon should not have mold on its surface. It should have a pleasant aroma overall, and the outer skin should be smooth and free of wrinkles. The fat should be white and not excessive in proportion to the lean meat. The lean meat should be pink with fine texture. The side of bacon should be firm to the touch.

Note: Before cooking ham, it is advisable to soak it in cold water for at least 24 hours.
This will remove excess salt from curing. Also, before cooking a large ham, remove the pelvic bone to facilitate carving.

I was just thinking about some of the great chefs that touched my culinary heart. Leaha Chase is immortal in my mind Her restaurant Dooky Chase's 5th Ward location was flooded by Hurricane   Katrina and was not scheduled to reopen until the summer of 2006. To save Chase's African-American art collection from damage, her grandson placed the art collection in storage. The New Orleans restaurant community got together on April 14, 2006 (Holy Thursday) to hold a benefit, charging $75 to $500 per person for a gumbo z'herbes, fried chicken, and bread pudding lunch at a posh French Quarter restaurant. The guests consumed 50 gallons of gumbo and raised $40,000 for at that time the  82-year-old Mrs. Chase. Dooky Chase restaurant was scheduled to open April 5, 2007It opened mostly for take-out and special events due to shortage of trained waitstaff. But  she preserved and today she’s open and still cooking at the ripe age of 93.  
In the 2012 revival of Tennessee Williams's classic New Orleans play A Streetcar Named Desire, which had an all-African-American cast, a mention of the restaurant Galatoire's (which was segregated during the play's post-war 1940s time period) was changed to a mention of Dooky Chase's Restaurant, which was integrated.
This culinary dynamo brought back the great creole culinary culture of New Orleans. She is one of one of America’s greatest chefs.  She cooks from the heart because she inspires me to cook every day, just because she’s Leaha

An after thought

So tomorrow Morning  I’m cooking   Eggs Sardou and Shrimp Etouffee in honor of her. Just thinking of her makes me want to cook for my great lady and wife Jean of 40 years married to me. So in good taste reservations are required but we have only one table with one seat open for Leaha personal choice and who she would like to invite.

THE SPIRIT OF A SUCCESSFUL COOK

This is an important message to the aspiring cook

PASSION:

          • Show initiative and solves problem

          • Utilizes common sense

          •Is ENGAGED and MOTIVATED

          •Is determined to offer irreproachable service to our guests

          •Accepts change and is flexible

PERSONALITY:

          •Is naturally positive

          •Shows professionalism

          •Shows loyalty

          •Shows dedication

          •Shows generosity

RESPECT:

          •Takes responsibility for triumphs as well as mistakes.

          •Learns and incorporates supplied information into their daily performance.

          •Respects and cultures, values, and customs of students and instructors.

          •Adopts the attitude, comportment, and presentation of your school.

          •Answer “Yes Chef” when an order is called or a directive is given by a superior.

TEAMWORK:

          •Never leaves a station in a state that they would not want to enter into.

          •Transmits knowledge, competency, technique, guidance, and support to develop            

                 less experienced students or new teammates. 

                •Recognizes that the success of the team is more important than the success of

            the individual.

          •Support the vision and the mission of your coop employer and your school.

          •Adopt a sense of personal responsibility for the financial success of the employer by   not wasting or abusing products or serving subpar products to our guests.

         

INNOVATION:

          •Shows curiosity, ask questions when not sure, and records information given to them.

          •Offers creative solutions to problems instead of complaining.

          •Is open to new information, techniques, and experience related to furthering the  

           knowledge and ability of the staff.

          •Continuously willing to move forward while always respecting the traditions and

           customs of the les Amis D' Escoffier.

 •Encourages the evolution of our institute and views changes as an opportunity to improve and grow.

     

Master Chefs Update

A Tough Day at the Office

February 25, 2013

The last day of the test is always the toughest one to take. And unfortunately is the most enduring one of all. Although the candidates did not successfully complete their exam they have wonderful potential to come back and retake the exam in the near future.

Sadly, no additional CMC's were added at the end of the exam today. Our heartfelt thanks to both Chefs Baxter and Kampff for representing ACF so well. The greatest thing about attaining your CMC is the basic skills you learn from day one to view a ready to take the exam.

The main fundamentals of the exam are you demonstrating your mastery of your craft and your understanding of all the different concepts of cooking both nationally and internationally. Which these great chefs set out to do  so good luck to our upcoming certified master pastry chef exam in August and I hope to see these great chefs back and finished their journey to become CMC.

The new challenges that are always going to be is the nurturing of new candidates. And this is going to be the challenge of all the CMC's in the next five years because if we do not develop the talent that is needed to keep this crucial certification standard all will be lost. So that is my challenge for the next five years to nurture to teach and develop the next generation of certified master chefs.

Chefs  Hall, Barnes, and Kinsella Proctoring the exam

In search of well prepared and well cooked meals

“Where ignorance is bliss it’s a folly to be wise.”

A very apt statement by Oscar Wilde in the 18^th century. 

The side effects of poor food processed foods, and poorly trained cooks only contributes to what we are going to be fighting in this century obesity. The side effect of burnt meats and its carcinogens which in the long term causing esophagus and stomach cancers. Because the meat is not properly butchered the fat content will be higher and therefore cause platelets to grow in our veins and cause heart attacks. The addition to chemicals to our seafood including our shrimp harvest has got to have a long-term effect on us all. If we continually eat like this by 2131 75% of our population will be obese, with the side effects of diabetes: cancers and other serious diseases. We just had an election where we had everybody screaming about Obama care and about its cost, but let us remind ourselves that the less use of healthcare insurance cut our costs down in the long term. So that is why I am hypercritical about these types of restaurants it is not only the damage they do to their own image the long-term damage they do to the dining population.  I’m not a vegetarian freak, I love a well-cooked steak but if steak is on the menu instead of that large baked potato I always have a great salad and a good glass of red wine.

I love seafood because I call it nature’s fast food it simple to cook you can impress at which her own style of seasonings and flavors and still have a wonderful meal and always begin with a great side  salad. So whether it be Eastgate Northside Southside or any other side I think it is time to make manufacturers and mostly ourselves accountable of what we offer to the dining public. I think we need to get back to the kiss factor or calling it cooking in simple steps providing great food for the dining public and release the stress that our service people seem to be forever dealing with customer’s complaints. I was in a restaurant the other night where eight people left a three dollar tip for $150 check what an insult to that server who I know to be very efficient and very polite and interacts with our customers in a friendly professional manner.

No wonder most of the people in the United States thinks that our professions are jobs we take while we go to college instead of looking at it as an honorable profession where everyone can learn a good living and provide for their families. Yesterday I cooked Thanksgiving dinner kept it simple roast the turkey on trivet make great gravy, real mashed potatoes steamed broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce and a great salad. A simple flavorful meal and most of all enjoying our family sitting around the table and talking and sharing with each other our family hopes for all our futures and sharing with eace other what a meal is all about love.

This is what dining is should be all about and when we go out to dine it should be for purpose of sharing each other’s hopes and experiences in a hospitable place with great food and great service. And not a place to stuff our faces with poorly cooked food with stressed out service people and pay for an overpriced meal.

I rest my case

Chef

Winter Barbecue Recipes.

Chefs Monster rib recipe 

A day to Make 

INGREDIENTS

   1 Double rack of Ribs 

2. Use the Red Chile Sauce recipe 

Method

 (Start first thing in the morning)

   Fill large pan halfway full with water and bring to boil

   Pull membrane off of ribs and place in water - boil for 20 minutes

   Pull ribs out and dump about half the water

   Put rack in pan and then ribs on top of rack - should be just above waterline

   Cover with aluminum foil

   Put in oven at 225 (convection)

   At noon, brush on first layer of BBQ sauce onto ribs

   At 2:00, 

Brush on the second layer of BBQ sauce - remove aluminum foil

   At 4:00,

 On the grill brush on final layer and cook on the cool side of the grill 

   Bet you can't resist pulling a rib off to taste!  ;-)

   Try to wait at least until 5:00 before serving 

   Serve with extra BBQ sauce on the side for those that want it

Texas style beef brisket

INGREDIENTS

   Large (10+ lbs) Prime (high quality) Angus Beef Brisket, (Aged appropriately!)

   Prepared Hickory Chips (~ 8 Cups)

   Salt and Papper (fresh ground)

   Garlic Powder (to taste)

   Cayenne Pepper (Fresh Ground - to taste)

Barbecue Sauce (Of Personal Preference to taste My Sauce is the best )

   Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Hickory Preparation:  (for Slow-Cooking)

This amounts to "water-logging" the hickory chips.  Preferred method is

using clean, food-grade, 5-gallon pail and place Hickory (enough for the cooking endeavor) into pail. Place weight on the chips to hold them 

on the bottom. Add enough water to cover hickory + 3 inches. Soak for 

48 to 72 hours. Change water (to rinse) prior to use in grill. 

Cooking the Brisket                                                                                                                     :

Heat the grill (240-250), stocked with 1/4 of the hickory.  

Place hickory around the edges of the grill to obtain slow smoldering.   

The temperature of the grill should stay between 240 and 250 throughout the grilling.

Trim fat from the brisket, leaving about a quarter-inch of fat "covering" on the brisket.

Season brisket with the dry ingredients.

Slow grill (@ 240 to 250) until brisket internal temp is 200 in middle of the thickest part.  This will take at least 9 hours (if Brisket is ~ 10.5 lbs).

Slow cooking Method

Whilst slow-cooking, perform the following:  

    a) Don't let temp go out of range

    b) Replenish hickory every 2 hours 

    c) Start checking internal brisket temp @ ~ 6 hours, checking every 30 minutes thereafter.

If brisket seems dry at ~ 170, wrap it in foil for the remainder of cooking.

Wrap in foil when done cooking and let sit in an insulated container

or environment (to retain heat) for no less than 1 hour prior to slicing.

Optional:  Brush outside of brisket with barbecue sauce prior to slicing.

Slice across the grain.

Chef Tip:

Optional:  Serve meat with more sauce - although some people love the flavor 

of the brisket so much that they will not want to apply barbecue sauce.

                                       Red Chile Sauce

Yield:             4 cups – This is the most famous of all the New Mexican sauces.

½ Pound ( about 25) whole dried New Mexico red chiles or red ancho chiles
OR (1/2 POUND DRIED New Mexico red chile powder)

Ingredients                                                                                                      
2 quarts of water

1 Pound Roma tomatoes

½ cup chopped white onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

5 large cloves garlic, roasted, peeled, and finely chopped

1 teaspoon roasted ground cumin

1 ½ teaspoons roasted ground Mexican oregano

1 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons peanut oil

Method                                                                                                                                             

·         Remove stems and seeds from chiles.

·         With a comal or black iron skillet, or in an oven at 250°, dry roast chiles for 3 to 4 minutes. 

·         Shake once or twice and do not allow to blacken.  Add to the water in a covered pan and simmer very low for 20 minutes to rehydrate. 

·         Allow to cool.  Blacken tomatoes in a skillet or under a broiler ( about 5 minutes).  Saute¢ onions in the oil over low heat until browned.

·         Put chiles in a blender.  Add blackened tomatoes, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, and salt.  Add a cup liquid.  (Taste the chile water first.  If ir is not bitter, use chile water, otherwise add plain water or chicken stock.)

·         Puree to fine paste; adding more chile water, water or chicken stock if necessary.

·         Add oil or lard to a high-sided pan, and heat until almost smoking.  Refry sauce at a sizzle for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring continuously.  Do not allow sauce to get too thick; add water if necessary.

Smoked Tomato and Jalapeno

Barbeque Sauce

Ingredients

2 ½ pounds Roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise

7 Jalapeno chiles, cut in half lengthwise and seeded

1 ½ cups finely chopped white onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 cloves garlic, roasted and peeled

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup softened sweet butter

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Method

·         Using a fruit wood (such as apple), smoke* the tomatoes and jalapenos, cut-side up,, for approximately 1 hour. 

·         Slowly sauté the onion in the oil until brown.  Place in a blender together with the tomatoes, 4 of the jalapenos, garlic sugar, and salt. 

·         Puree to an even consistency and strain through through a medium sieve.  Transfer to a pan, warm gently, and stir in the butter and vinegar

·         .  Garnish with the remaining 3 jalapenos, cut into julienne strips.

*Liquid Smoke may be used but the results will not be as good as the fruit wood.  If using liquid smoke as a substitute for the fruit wood, sauté the onions.  Add 1 ½ teaspoons liquid smoke and the remaining ingredients, and simmer 35 to 40 minutes

Crab Tamale with Smoked tomato and Jalapeno Sauce

And served with a black bean salade

Yields: 8 to 10 tamales

Ingredients                                                                                                             

24 ounces of Phillips crab meat

¾ teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

4 tablespoons butter, finely cubes

1/3 cup coarsely chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon finely chopped Serrano chile

2 tablespoons heavy cream

8 to 10 large dried corn husks, soaked in hot water until pliable

Method                                                                                                                    

·         Mix the crab meat with salt and egg in a food processor. 

·         In a bowl set over ice and water, mix crab meat with the butter cilantro, serrano, and cream. 

·         Divide mixture evenly between the corn husks; roll and tie tamales, and steam for 8 minutes. 

·         Let cool and serve with Smoked Tomato and Jalapeno Sauce or Green Chile Sauce

Grilled Venison

With Ancho and Prickly Pear Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients                                                                                                             

4 vension loin-end chops, about 8 ounces

4 slices bacon

4 large porcini mushrooms caps

Ancho and Prickly Pear Sauce (recipe follows)

Method                                                                                                                          

·        To prepare venison, grill chops, preferably over a hot pecan grill, or broil, 6 to 8 minutes per side.  Fry bacon until just done. 

·        Grill porcini caps for 1 to 2 minutes.  Serve porcini on top of bacon next to the venison chop, which should be placed over the sauce

 

                                Ancho and Prickly Pear Sauce

Ingredients                                                                                                            

2 cups brown venison or beef stock

2 cups venison trimmings, browned

4 ancho chiles, seeded

5 prickly pears, peeled

Method                                                                                                                   

·         Using a stainless steel or enamel saucepan, bring ½ cup of the stock to a simmer and add venison trimmings and ancho chile. 

·         Continue to simmer gently, replacing ecaporated stock with reserved stock until it has all been used. 

·         Remove and reserve the ancho chiles and strain the stock, pushing down hard on trimmings to release all the liquid.

·          Puree stock with the reserved ancho chiles.  Sieve, return to pan and reduce further, skimming occasionally, until 1 cup stock remains.  Cut half of one of the prickly pears into 1-inch dice. 

•  Puree venison sauce with thee remining prickly pears and push through a sieve. 
• Add diced prickly pear to sauce and heat through.

 

My Last Hurrah

Next week I’m off to Germany to be part of the culinary Olympics in an official capacity of chair of the ACFEF. Imagine the many years I’ve spent in competition and I still have the passion to compete at whatever level I choose.  The dedication I see in many a competitor‘s is the desire to perfect one’s craft and it’s not about bragging rights or medals it’s about the desire to learn and grow. The greatest critics of perfecting  one’s skills for competitions is the desire to extend the envelope as much they can so one is always critical of one’s work and it should be that way. The Monday quarterbacks who sits around and brag what they can do and never compete are those who are lost in mediocrity bemoaning the amount of money one spends on building the team and get it to the Olympics or the World Cup or to any other international competition.  I believe it’s just pure selfishness and not seeing the whole picture that a chef must reach out to become successful.
I honestly believe that to be a chef and I mean a chef is a person who is willing to be able to identify new challenges during their career to make themselves more successful.  As we are all in the entertainment business and if we really believe that’s we can compare ourselves with the great entertainers of the world who are those individuals who are in constant change to perfect their craft continually. You really think that Escoffier sats on his butt and did nothing more after he became the   "father of modern culinary arts." Chef once told me that he worked continually even after he retired from the kitchen to promote the craft of cooking and the craft of being an excellent chef. I’ve been blessed in my life to be surrounded by chefs like this and it always amazes me that I still hear people moaning and groaning how hard they have to work about the long hours and their lack of self-esteem which is normally transferred to all the other for cooks and kitchen people within their businesses.
Yes I’m proud to be a chef and I’ll always be one but I still fall back on the great saying by Chef Escoffier  “the world’s greatest chefs are the world’s greatest cooks and Sir I am a great cook who was lucky enough to become and be recognized as a leading chef in my lifetime”
So the ready for some nice photographs and the experiences I’ve will have at the Olympics.
But there is another part of me that needs fulfilling and I intend to visit Buchenwald concentration camp which is near where the competition is going on. I have visited two other camps like this in my lifetime and as two my cousins were adopted by one of my uncles after the second world war from one of those camps I need to be reminded of the evil that’s in this world and the evil that was perpetrators against the 13 million peoples of all nations religious faiths and illnesses.
So I’ll keep in touch what I’m in Europe on till I get back I’ll be safe and I hope and pray that you will all be to.
Chef