You got a protein? I can get that broken down for you!

Chickens, ducks, round and flat fish, lobster, mollusks, veal, beef.
If you have some, I would LOVE to get the practice!

OK, the shellfish was a breeze considering the fact that we had many MANY crab and clam bakes at my home as a kid. Doing it the "right" way is a little different from what my PopPop taught me, but that is why I am in school right?

I think the hardest thing about breaking all of this protein down into their marketable forms was remembering to hone my knife BEFORE I needed too and picturing the paths to take to disassemble them.

Take the chicken for example. It is fairly simple to find and follow the yellow fat deposits that mark your cuts. The hard part my friend is getting the "oyster" every time. I think I got one of the chickens and the duck right.

I am trying to not be TOO hard on myself but it is all moving SO fast in class. Everyday we are doing what the WEEKLY students do in 2 DAYS That gives you an idea of the pace. It is from the minute you walk in, 30 minutes for lunch and back at it until the end of class.

My freezer will soon be filled with both tons of chicken and fish stocks. This boy has got a LOT of practice to get to!

This week is the end of protein fabrication and on to the Mother Sauces. I have a TON of reading to do tonite and tomorrow. For those that DON'T know . . .Mother sauces are the 5 sauces that about 500 OTHER sauces are made from. Something you THINK you are making as an original is probably something based on a Mother Sauce. More on that next week!

OH OH, my medium dice is coming along nicely. In case you were wondering.