Beef (Chicken Poo, Corn n' Drugs)

The morning started off well. The 8am start-time attracts two kinds of students: those who are psyched to be there and those whose commutes force them in then. Today, I stopped by Kossar's Bagels and Bialys on the way to class and bought a dozen bagels. When Chef M came in just after 7:30, he took out the gravlox we set to cure on Friday and ordered up some cream cheese and tomatoes. In case you forgot, the large side of raw salmon was buried in a slurry of kosher salt, sugar, black peppercorns, cilantro and tequila. Chef showed me how to slice the fish, which was a bit of a trip -- I've watched the mongers at Russ & Daughters slice fish for me countless times, and they do it so artfully and efficiently. Dragging the santoku knife along the fish was surprisingly difficult to control to get the nice long, thin fillets. The fish itself was delicious, though the tequila gave it a weird margarita overtone that would probably appeal more to an alcoholic out for brunch than a NYC-raised Jew like myself. Regardless, the flavor of the salty fish was great against the fresh bagel. And a great way to start the day.

The lecture portion of the day was a bit of a horror story. Chef M is more than aware of the questionable state of the American food supply, particularly when it comes to animal product. The majority of beef in the US comes from factory farms, where the animals are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, fed an unnatural diet of corn and chicken poop (the chicken themselves having been fed a lot of otherwise unusable cow trim), and are slaughtered by a minimally-regulated industry with the highest accident rate in the world. The USDA supposedly inspects cows before and after slaughter, but they are underfunded and politically hobbled.

Chef mentioned sanitation in the slaughtering of beef. On the kill floor, the animal will be herded into a pen and a bolt will be shot into its head. This is supposed to kill it instantly. Seconds later, a caliper will pick it up and cut it in half and remove the head and guts. If the animal moves its head and the bolt does NOT kill it instantly, it'll wiggle when picked up and cut in half, almost guaranteeing the cut goes through its digestive tract and spreading e-coli through out the meat.

Speaking of meat, a steer (castrated male cow, the ones we eat) takes 3 years to come to kill weight when fed a natural diet, but only 18 months when fed drugs and corn. At 1500 pounds, after removing the head, skin, guts and bones, literally two thirds of the animal is trim. This used to be fed to the cows, but cannibal cows developed mad cow disease. Now it's fed to chickens, whose poo is....denatured and fed to cows! All this so we can eat $1 burgers at McDonald's three meals a day.

After thoroughly discouraging me on the idea of ever eating meat again, we discussed dry aging (controlled rotting in a dry room to tenderize the meat) and the different cuts from the different parts of the animal. Many distributors pack meat in vacuum sealed bags, and allow it to age in the meat's juices ("wet aging"), but Chef M is of the opinion that this does nothing to tenderize or add flavor to the meat.

We chopped up some mirepoix (onion, celery, carrots) for duck stock using the roasted bones from yesterday, then the fatty slabs of beef came at us. We each got a third of a short loin and first practiced trussing it, then trimming the copious thick fat which coats this cut. The fat was solid, white, and almost looked like processed turkey meat as we carved it off.

Once we got enough fat off, we sliced it into individual portions then we went to work on a different side of beef, tenderloins. Again slicing off a whole lot of fat, removing excess muscles that didn't go with the portions we were aiming to cut (filet mignon, chateau briand and tenderloin tip.) One piece we butterflied, put in plastic, and hammered it flat.

After clean-up, Chef M grilled enough meat over charcoal for everyone, and the grim lecture of the morning dissipated -- we were hungry, and those steaks smelled good. He also brought out the duck comfit we set up yesterday, and it tasted extremely....ducky. And juicy. I took some of the whole garlic cloves out of it and spread it on a bit of french bread....fatty ducky roasted garlic is easily one of the most delicious bread spreads ever.

It has occurred to me that we're not really cooking yet -- we're still in the fundamentals of cutting down meat and vegetables to prepare them for cooking. I guess one must crawl before he walks, and I'm aiming for an extended sprint by the time school is over.

ADDENDA:
Mother's Day is Sunday, and B's mom wants to go to.... a steak house. Oy.

Got a flyer to try out for "Top Chef." I've only watched the show once and it was over-the-top ridiculous with a bunch of repulsive egoists. Maybe I should try to watch it before I spend a morning on line at a cattle call. Hmmm, cattle call. Think they'll feed me some chicken poo?

BREAKFAST #1: 6:30am, banana, hunger 3/5

BREAKFAST #2: 2 halves of a bagel with class-made gravlox and tomato slice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Skipped the cream cheese

LUNCH: 11:30, 1 piece grilled tenderloin steak, 1 piece grilled sirloin steak, bite of duck comfit, piece of french bread with roasted garlic in duck fat, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, small handful of nuts, 1.5 packages of peanut butter cracker sandwiches, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bicycle snack, overlooking the Hudson River and Tapanzee Bridge from Tallman Mountain State Park

DINNER: 6pm, mushroom tofu soup, white rice, kimchee, assorted pickles, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Dined at the Soft Tofu Restaurant in Fort Lee again, avoided the meat as I had enough of that in the morning!

EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, organic chex with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Kinda craving sweets...huh, can't remember last time I ate a sweet....too tired to review blog....