Note: There was a slight adjustment to our schedule this week and our classes were switched around, meaning that this week’s Baking Lab will be on Wednesday and our Wednesday Food Basics lab was held yesterday. As Chef S explained during his lecture, sheep are very important and historically significant animals, having been among the first to be domesticated and raised [...]
Posts from ‘June, 2009’
Week 8, Day 2: Pork
It’s crazy to think that many of my most favorite food items…bacon, pulled pork, carnitas, pork belly, prosciutto, pork chops, numerous variety of sausages, baby back ribs…are all sourced from the same animal. How can it be that all of these very different things, from the mouth-wateringly tender baby back ribs, to the cured and thinly sliced [...]
Rabbit Night
Shortly after the wife and I moved from Boston to Somerville, we discovered this great meat market located conveniently within a 10 minute walk from our house. We’ve been in there to shop a few times and we’re always amazed not only by the freshness of their meat but by how much more affordable it [...]
Week 8, Day 1: Brioche
This week we conclude our foray into the wacky world of yeast and bread by a discussing all things Brioche-related. We covered yeast, flour and gluten in detail in previous weeks, so this week we didn’t have a ton of new material to cover, but there are a few things that make brioche unique when compared to other breads. Brioche is the [...]
Sushi Night at School
One of the graduation requirements for my program is that students must participate in a certain number of school-sponsored events during the school year. For Culinary Certificate Program students like me, this translates into a time commitment of approximately 12 hours. One of the easiest and most popular ways for students to satisfy this requirement is [...]
Week 7, Day 2: Dry Heat Cookery
Following on the heels of last week’s Moist Heat Cookery class, the topic of this week’s class was Dry Heat Cookery and its practical application to beef. We learned about 6 different methods for dry heat cooking: 1) Broiling/Grilling Applications of dry heat where the meat is only cooked on one side at a time. With grilling, the heat comes [...]
Week 7, Day 1: Rich Doughs
This week’s class about Rich Doughs was continuation of last week’s class all about Lean Doughs; we revisited a lot of the same techniques that were introduced last week. Yeast and gluten are still our friends so many recipes featured today called for an initial ‘proving’ of the yeast to ensure that it would provide the rising action for our breads. Additionally, [...]
Practice Makes Perfect
Looking back on my first 6 weeks of culinary school, I’ve really learned a lot and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it and I’m pleased to report there hasn’t been any immediate need to run to the mall to purchase looser fitting pants. One of the things that still really sticks out in my mind was stressed [...]
Week 6, Day 2: Moist Heat Cookery
Let me just start off by saying that we ate very well in class today. If today was any indication of what the next few weeks will be like, then I will be very happy (and also on my way to gaining about 10 lbs). Definitely one of my favorite classes so far. The topic of [...]
Week 6, Day 1: Lean Doughs
The topic for this week’s Baking Lab was lean doughs. You’ve probably all eaten something made from a lean dough; french breads and sourdough are two very popular applications. A dough is considered to be lean if it has very little or no fat content. For the most part, the doughs that we prepared in [...]
