Tales From an Urban Chef

It’s been a while since I’ve worked on this blog and it’s time to kick start it again damn it! Here we go!

I am a proponent of on-going education regardless of how old you are. Gaining knowledge by learning new things keeps you young and in my field it is also important to your longevity as a chef. I briefly went to culinary school in the 80’s but paying for an education on minimum wage which was $3.35 working in restaurants couldn’t sustain my own on going education so I decided that a hands on degree was more ideal for my situation and learned as my career progressed. 4505 Meats offers different classes for different applications. Their approach to animal husbandry is vital to sustainability not only to the meat industry but also to the restaurant industry. They believe in local product that is free of chemicals and antibiotics. They offer a premium product that is not only good but good for you!  I just finished the sausage making class and now have whole hog butchery and whole steer butcher classes coming up.

The sausage making class was very fun and very educational. This will allow me to make sausages in my restaurants kitchen where before I had to rely on my meat purveyors to supply the product. Fun and cost-effective at the same time. We made three different types of sausages. A classic Marguez sausage, a chicken, Dogfish Head Festina Peche and apricot sausage and a pork and pecorino sausage. They were all delicious. Working with the other students was also enjoyable. We were all equals regardless of our backgrounds and everyone was very nice and fun!

I am posting various pictures of the class with descriptions of what were involved. Enjoy!!

http://4505meats.com

Chicken thighs sent through a huge grinder. It took less than 20 seconds to grind 12 lbs of chiciken!

Adding all the ingredients to the ground chicken.

All ingredients ready for mixing!

Korbin working his magic.

Pre-mixing instructions.

Greg mixing the Marguez batch.

Ready for mixing.

Kent is testing the mix to see if it’s ready to stuff.

Testing the Marguez before stuffing.

This is a table mounted crank stuffer. Recommended because electric stuffers do not allow to slow down or back up if gravity takes hold and pushes too much product out at once.

F. Dick are a German knife and kitchen hardware manufacturer. Insert inappropriate joke here—>

Another angle.

Prepping the table. Water is your friend. If not, the casings will stick like glue and tear.

This is a pork casing going on the “horn” that feeds the product into the casing.

Filling the bin with product. No air is permitted because it causes bubbles in the casing.

Different grinder sizes and blade.

Stuffing a small amount of meat to enable us to tie a knot in the casing.

Pork sausage stuffing.

The beginning of pork stuffing.

Forming coils to increase table space.

Finished lamb Marguez sausage.

Finished product. Pork and pecorino sausage.

Wrapping product.

We rock!!

4505’s famous hot dogs!!