Some visual food porn.
Mar. 18th, 2005 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumA few people have said I ought to take pictures of my food.
To them I say, "hah!". Food is notoriously hard to shoot.
On the other hand I had Maia take some pictures of me when I was butchering the meat Thursday, and I post them for the hell of it. Any apparent flaws are my fault, as this is not her camera, and my preferred settings make the auto-focus less reliable; for the non-familiar.
I may elect to use one of them, as an Icon, to let people know I'm doing food porn (as the Kelp Bubble is being used to let you know this is a photography post, though perhaps the line is blurred on this one).
The pictures are here Cutting Meat
Preparation was straightforward. Strip the table, cover it with plastic, lay out the knives, steels, a bowl and the cutting board.
One big knife (I'm fortunate to have a quartering knife, which is suitable, in size, for anything from sectioning a whole steer into primal cuts (but isn't really the tool for the job, it won't go through bone) to the big cuts I was doing.
One general knife. I used my favorite all-around knife. Straight backed, with just a touch of clip at the tip, and rounded on the edge-side. Moderately thick in the blade. I tend to like square handles.
And a flensing knife. The house has two of these because when one takes the beef-production class (which she an Alexa have both done, one must by both the knife, and the text (and for proof that tinkering with the tax code leads to funny things, meat is no longer butchered after slaughter [which is now called harvesting] but manufactured, which means commercial butcheries get the manufacturing credits of the first Bush II tax cut, but I digress. It took me awhile to find out why this infelicitous language was being used).
It's a handy little knife. The sharp rake means it will dig very deeply into a large piece of meat with a nominal amount of wrist action, but the short length makes it easy to work around things. It has a thin blade, and a lot of flexibility. I was happier with it in action than I thought I would be when I was sharpening it.
The steels. I use stones to put the shape, and edge on my knives. But use dulls them, so steels take off the damaged teeth (to simplify the mechanics of sharpness, the edge of a knife is like a microscopic saw, and the teeth break, and bend with use). I have a ceramic steel, for big repair, a fine steel after that, and a satin steel for the last bit of edge.
I don't have one of the block steels sold with knife sets. They are too coarse for the edge I keep on my knives (which is both sharper in angle, and finer in detail than that recommended by most cutlers, and even cooks [save those who make sushi). The satin steel comes out only when I need to do something like this, and a razor's edge is needful.
I think I touched up the knives three times, after the cutting started.
The procedure was about the same for both pieces of meat. Look at the whole thing, decide on a couple of uses, make the cuts, look at the rest and repeat, until I ran out of smaller cuts to make. Even at that, I left a couple of larger cuts for roasting/using for lots of people (we are planning to have weekly get-togethers, starting next quarter), and I can still cut them down.
The loin was sliced at the 1/3rd point, turned sideways and sliced again, and then cut into disks for medallions. I can also cut those down again for chili verde, or stir-fry.
The rest of the loin was easy, as I just made it into roasting pieces, from some I will probably cube, or sliver for ingredients, to the monster I'll use for a tuesday night when we expect to have eight people at the table. I got ten sub-cuts from it, which will probably, when leftovers are figured in, make for 12-13 meals.
The rib-eye was about the same. The shape of the parent cut is pointed oval. So I cut the narrow part off, which makes it easier to cut thick steaks and still have a reasonable portion size. It also made it easier to slice off the fat which runs along the edge, in a hard ridge ( about 1/12 lbs, clean, white and flaky. Too bad I don't have need of it. We'll use it to train the dogs).
I cut some steaks, about nine, made a couple of small roasts, one medium roast, sliced some, along the grain for stir fry and made a lot of stew chunks; for soup, chili, stews, with the really densely marbled bits, and the meat in, and around, the fat.
It took about an hour and-a-half, from slicing the first one open, to sealing the last piece into the vacuum bag.
To them I say, "hah!". Food is notoriously hard to shoot.
On the other hand I had Maia take some pictures of me when I was butchering the meat Thursday, and I post them for the hell of it. Any apparent flaws are my fault, as this is not her camera, and my preferred settings make the auto-focus less reliable; for the non-familiar.
I may elect to use one of them, as an Icon, to let people know I'm doing food porn (as the Kelp Bubble is being used to let you know this is a photography post, though perhaps the line is blurred on this one).
The pictures are here Cutting Meat
Preparation was straightforward. Strip the table, cover it with plastic, lay out the knives, steels, a bowl and the cutting board.
One big knife (I'm fortunate to have a quartering knife, which is suitable, in size, for anything from sectioning a whole steer into primal cuts (but isn't really the tool for the job, it won't go through bone) to the big cuts I was doing.
One general knife. I used my favorite all-around knife. Straight backed, with just a touch of clip at the tip, and rounded on the edge-side. Moderately thick in the blade. I tend to like square handles.
And a flensing knife. The house has two of these because when one takes the beef-production class (which she an Alexa have both done, one must by both the knife, and the text (and for proof that tinkering with the tax code leads to funny things, meat is no longer butchered after slaughter [which is now called harvesting] but manufactured, which means commercial butcheries get the manufacturing credits of the first Bush II tax cut, but I digress. It took me awhile to find out why this infelicitous language was being used).
It's a handy little knife. The sharp rake means it will dig very deeply into a large piece of meat with a nominal amount of wrist action, but the short length makes it easy to work around things. It has a thin blade, and a lot of flexibility. I was happier with it in action than I thought I would be when I was sharpening it.
The steels. I use stones to put the shape, and edge on my knives. But use dulls them, so steels take off the damaged teeth (to simplify the mechanics of sharpness, the edge of a knife is like a microscopic saw, and the teeth break, and bend with use). I have a ceramic steel, for big repair, a fine steel after that, and a satin steel for the last bit of edge.
I don't have one of the block steels sold with knife sets. They are too coarse for the edge I keep on my knives (which is both sharper in angle, and finer in detail than that recommended by most cutlers, and even cooks [save those who make sushi). The satin steel comes out only when I need to do something like this, and a razor's edge is needful.
I think I touched up the knives three times, after the cutting started.
The procedure was about the same for both pieces of meat. Look at the whole thing, decide on a couple of uses, make the cuts, look at the rest and repeat, until I ran out of smaller cuts to make. Even at that, I left a couple of larger cuts for roasting/using for lots of people (we are planning to have weekly get-togethers, starting next quarter), and I can still cut them down.
The loin was sliced at the 1/3rd point, turned sideways and sliced again, and then cut into disks for medallions. I can also cut those down again for chili verde, or stir-fry.
The rest of the loin was easy, as I just made it into roasting pieces, from some I will probably cube, or sliver for ingredients, to the monster I'll use for a tuesday night when we expect to have eight people at the table. I got ten sub-cuts from it, which will probably, when leftovers are figured in, make for 12-13 meals.
The rib-eye was about the same. The shape of the parent cut is pointed oval. So I cut the narrow part off, which makes it easier to cut thick steaks and still have a reasonable portion size. It also made it easier to slice off the fat which runs along the edge, in a hard ridge ( about 1/12 lbs, clean, white and flaky. Too bad I don't have need of it. We'll use it to train the dogs).
I cut some steaks, about nine, made a couple of small roasts, one medium roast, sliced some, along the grain for stir fry and made a lot of stew chunks; for soup, chili, stews, with the really densely marbled bits, and the meat in, and around, the fat.
It took about an hour and-a-half, from slicing the first one open, to sealing the last piece into the vacuum bag.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 06:41 pm (UTC)If you didn't have dogs, I'd suggest mixing that suet with birdseed, but I suspect California birds aren't as needy as ones in colder climates.
And now, I shall inflict a true deer-dressing story on you--several years ago, my landlord's brother dropped off 2 deer Thanksgiving morning. Jon, our former-commercial butcher friend was there for the day, and they ended up dressing them out in the front yard [what? doesn't everyone do that?--the gentryfiers were bemused]. While he worked on the first one, my landlord's dachshunds were eagerly investigating the other--except for one, who decided to take pre-emptive action to save that deer for herself, and was eagerly burying it under dead leaves, so as to keep the scavengers away.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 07:19 pm (UTC)I have no small amount of cutlery. My favorites for the kitchen are the middling knife I used in this, and a 6" AG Russel, paring/chef's knife. I find it handy for everything but heavy chopping. Then again, I value the ability to move a knife more than its brute strength, at least in the kitchen.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 07:19 pm (UTC)TK
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 08:04 pm (UTC)I see you've read Kitchen Confidential. We have a copy of it around here somewhere and I was thinking of picking it up. Do you recommend it?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 08:36 pm (UTC)Yes, I do. There are some interesting things in it, and I don't know if my brief times in catering, and pizza, colored my take on it.
He is fairly honest, the horrors people said he talked about; I didn't find. It shows production cookery for the work it is, and the miracle of restaurant presentation.
I fall it seems, in the category of cook (as he defines it). We'd be sympatico, though I don't work on the scale of dedication he does, we share many of the same predjudices, and practices (menu planning). I was pleased to find him commending another cook I like a great deal (Tom Colicchio).
All in all, a good read.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-03-19 10:49 pm (UTC)My brother used to be a chef, but he gave it up because of the ridiculous hours. It does take a lot of dedication.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 07:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 08:21 am (UTC)TK
no subject
Date: 2005-03-21 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-21 12:44 am (UTC)If it makes you feel any better, look are deceiving. I am badass.
TK