Can i just say that i hated today. Not because of the weather. Not because I had to wake up at 6:21 (plus a 9 min snooze so actually 6:30). No, I hated today because i had to to work with chicken. Yes, I know that historically, I should love the yard bird. And I did, until i had not one but TWO head on, feet on, guts still inside whole birds that i was suppose to cook.
Who knew there were so many steps that led to that nicely packaged boneless skinless chicken breast we buy at grocery store without a second thought of how it came to be.
...Well let me tell ya!
Who knew there were so many steps that led to that nicely packaged boneless skinless chicken breast we buy at grocery store without a second thought of how it came to be.
...Well let me tell ya!
Etirer: First you have to stretch the bird. they come with the wings and legs tuck in and need a good stretch to access the entire surface area.
Flamber: The birds are covered in hot wax and run through brushes to quickly pluck the feathers. But nothings perfect. So to get the last lil bits, you hold the bird by the feet and head and swing back and forth...over a ROARING flame. This should singe any remaining feathers and hairs. And the freaky lil feet are burned also to easily remove the scales...which i never knew were there. Lots of lil surprises, these birds. You still have to scrap and pluck the last burned feathers and remove the burned scales which nowwipe off fairly easy.
Parer: Depending on what dish you're preparing, there are various steps. But essentially, you need to remove anything you don't need, like the feet or the wing tips, and the head and neck. Certain preparations need a certain look so you may parer the leg or wings at different spots.
Vider: Now you can remove the organs. Basically, stick your fingers in and detach the innards from the membrane. Hopefully pull everything out in one shot. I think i left the lungs in mine. oops!
Decouper: Only then can you segment the bird into desired cuts. Again, the cuts differ depending on the dish your preparing.
Ok, so maybe the way I described it here you can't really appreciate the misery. But after being in class for 5 hrs NO ONE finished. We didn't cook anything! Granted we took like 1.5 hr to set up and made a chicken stock, and cut up some veg. But we had so many demonstrations. We have been working on fish for so long that lately there are few things that Chef needs to explain. Class goes quite smoothly and I have a pretty decent pace. But starting on volaille, poultry, means we all needed a lil more explaination of technique because no one knows the french techniques of cutting chicken.
Like this one here...
Jambonette: For some reason, some one somewhere at some point thought it would be nice to make chicken parts look like lil hams, jambon. Confused? yeah me too. I didn't have time to take pics today so sorry no visual. But basically you cut and/or remove the bones in the the breast/wing and thigh/drumstick segments. Then make a slit in the flesh and stick the bone through and shape it so it looks like a whole ham. Why? who knows....
Like I said, no one finished, so I have to finish my 2nd bird tomorrow and do two recipes. Joy...
