The Class With the Saddle and Baby Loins

**Warning - If you are sensitive about Veal, do not read this post**

Interesting Fact: Veal is a byproduct of the dairy industry. New York and Wisconsin are the largest producers of veal because they are the largest dairy producing states in the country.

By now I'm sure you've figured out that we spend the first part of every class in lecture. And tonight was no different, 'cept we got our quizzes back. Your favorite chef-in-training got one of the only two 100's handed out. On the menu for t0nigh'ts lectures were stocks and veal. We covered stocks first.

Stocks (the culinary process of extraction, dilution and concentration), are the foundation of all cooking. They're the reason that restaurant food tastes so much better than your cooking. They use gallons upon gallons of stocks a day, you've never used one at all.

All stocks are made out of three things: nourishing elements (ie. bones), aromates, and water. There are two different kinds of stock white and brown. In brown stocks, the bones and veggies are roasted before being placed in water and tomato product is used. In white stocks, nothing is roasted prior and there are no tomato products.

For 1 Gallon of stock use:
7-8 lbs of bones
1 lb of mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery)
5 qts. of H2O
8 oz. of Tomtato product (brown only).

Cooking times depend on the bones you use, but can be anywhere from 1hour (fish) to 10 hours (brown veal).

From stocks we moved on to the Veal notes. Veal is classified into 4 groups (again, apologies for anyone's sensibilities that are about to be hurt, but I warned you):

1. Bob (baby veal) - Brought to slaughter anywhere from 3 days to 1 month old. They weigh about 20-60 lbs are milk fed only and are tough and less flavorful.
2. Vealers - Brought to slaughter anywhere from 1-3 months old. They are milk fed only and weigh 80-150 lobs. Their meat is fine grained and has a delicate texture
3. Calf - Brought to slaughter anywhere from 3-8 months old. Eat a mixed diet, and weigh 125-300 lbs. The grain is more coarse. ** Once the calf is over 4 months old, they really aren't considered veal anymore.
4. Natured veal - This is the good stuff. 16 weeks old, fed on a special formula of proteins, vitamins and minerals they have a fine grained delicate meat, weigh approximately 180-300 lbs and is the most expensive veal.

After we went over the basic cuts of a veal, we put away our notebooks and broke out the knives and cutting boards. We spent 15 minutes on our knife drill, (chiffonading basil, of which chef took and made us all basil oil, that we'll strain tonight and get to bring home). And then came the butchering (umm i mean fabrication). First we took out a whole saddle of veal split it down where the backbone was and trimmed the meat off the bone, cleaned the tenderloin and placed to the side. We then took out the sirloin, trimmed and cleaned it. Some of my fellow students trimmed their fingers in the process. We cut medallions (escaloppes) and then pounded out a paillard. Chef sauteed our tenderloins with salt and pepper and finished them off in the oven. After walking around and okaying our technique with a mallot, we oiled salted and peppered our paillards and got to throw our own on the grill. My hache marks were pretty decent, holding strong at the ten and two positions on my little piece of meat. It was quite yummy as was the tenderloin.

Tonight- we prep our own white stock and fabricate pork and rabbit.