Sausage Madness II

Phase 3, Week 5, Day 23

Ok, sorry for the crude post yesterday. In all seriousness, Sausage making and the preserving of meats is actually an art form called Charcuterie. Derived from Char meaning flesh and cuit meaning cooked, charcuterie is the process of salting, smoking, or curing meat. The ancient Romans actually regulated the trade of charcuterie and in 15th century France local guilds regulated tradesmen in the food production industry. The guilds that produced charcuterie were those of the charcutiers. The members of this guild produced a traditional range of cooked or salted and dried meats, which varied, sometimes distinctively, from region to region. The only "raw" meat the charcutiers were allowed to sell was unrendered lard. The charcutier prepared numerous items including pâtés, rillettes, sausages, bacon, trotters, and head cheese (brawn).


Charcuterie is a dying art form, in culinary circles you will still find die hard individuals who prefer to make their own sausage and dry their own meats. But these people are few and far between. Chef Bruce is one of these individuals, he had a great passion for explaining the heritage and methods of this art.


For production today we made:


Plate 1: Over easy egg, with hash browns, and sausage patties
Plate 2: Sausage links, Polenta, and Tomato Sauce.


Again today, no issues. It all fell into place and I finished the dishes very quickly. The longest part really being the fact we had to make the tomato sauce from scratch. I did have to remake my baby hash browns because I got distracted dorking with Jarod's egg and I burnt them. Oops!


Results:
Plate 1: Upside- "Aw, look at the cute little presentation you made." Downside- totally over salted the the hash browns. Dang it! 92%


Plate 2: Chef Tim said "I have no negative criticism of your dish." 92%. I would have thought with no negative criticism the score would have been higher. Go figure.....

A "little" breakfast

Sausage and polenta w/ sauteed peppers and onions

The Incredible Edible Egg

Phase 2, Week 4, Day 17

Eggs. Finally, some breakfast food at 6 am and not risotto or green beans! Egg cookery is actually a pretty difficult thing to master, additionally everyone is so particular how they like their eggs cooked it's kind of like you are fighting a loosing battle before you even take the field. A few tips and tricks from Adolf:

• Add vinegar to your poaching water to help speed up the cooking process of the white
• There should be no brown on your finished egg product (including fried eggs)
• Take your time cooking eggs, to high of heat will brown your egg.
• Hard Boiled eggs should actually be simmered, not boiled.
• If the yolk in your hard cooked egg is green, it's over cooked. The green coloration is sulfur-dioxide.
• The different grades of eggs have different applications.
• AA- Poached or Fried
• A- Hard cooked
• B- Baking
• Don't crack your egg directly into your pot/pan, always open it into a bowl or other container.
• Teflon is an omelet's best friend
• French omelets are rolled and American omelets are folded..
• And yes, omelets are supposed to be runny....

Today was fun. We were to make a single fried egg-over easy, a parsley and scallion 2 egg omelet, and eggs benedict.  I was psyched! I LOVE eggs benedict. It is my total favorite breakfast food and I get to make it from scratch. Well mostly, we didn't make the english muffins.

It was a good day from the judges too! I am expanding my use of culinary vocabulary and by doing this I am able to have a valuable critique that I can build upon.

Result:

Fried Egg: Very good, slight browning on 1/4 of the edge. But overall good. Key, take your time.

Omelet: Very nice flavor, too much garnish. (sorry, no picture)

Eggs Benedict: Egg cooked perfect, hollendaise good. "Overall, very tasty. However, DO NOT put a garnish on a dish just for color. It is not functional and therefore a waste of time!" Ok, I think I got that bit of advice down....

Fried egg w/ brown along the top right edge.

Eggs Bene w/ non functioning garnish