Week 7 at San Francisco Cooking School or The Silence of The Lamb (singular)

I still have all my fingers and managed not to burn myself.  Hoorays!  We also did something pretty amazing this week.  We butchered a lamb!

This lamb is HUGE!

Dave the Butcher, of Marina Meats, came to our class with a ready to butcher lamb.  Just like with filleting fish last week I discovered that I enjoyed it much more than I ever thought I would.  We used a bone saw to cut through large bones to break down the lamb into more manageable pieces.  Dave had an awesome knife holster for all his knives, it was pretty badass.  We spent 3 hours taking apart the lamb, and every one had a chance to do a little something.

 Meat!

 Dave's awesome knife holster.

Here's a video of my classmate Jen using the bone saw to split the back end of the sheep.

I learned that working with sheep/lamb left my hands super soft.  Sheep fat is actually called lanolin, and it's a waxy substance that feels amazing on your skin.  It's gross, but I kinda wanted to roll around in it.  ("It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." - Silence of the Lambs)

We also butchered rabbit, and squab.  This is going to sound psycho, but I honestly really love butchering.  The movements are precise and you have to be focused, it's very zen.  On Friday we ate the squab - grilled, and sautèd.  We also have rabbit legs browned with a dijon cream sauce, and rabbit loin wrapped around kidneys and hearts and browned.  Rabbit legs have the same texture as chicken, and rabbit loins seem to have the same texture as pork.  I still don't enjoy kidney.  We also ate a delicious lamb shank that my team made, slow cooked in veal stock with cilantro and garlic.  Everything was really delicious.  We finished off the day with profiteroles - ice cream filled dessert puffs covered in chocolate.  I borrowed most of the pictures on today's post from my classmate Mandy, so I can't take credit for how beautiful they are.

 Squab!

 Rabbit!

 

 Profiteroles!

I was lucky enough to TA for Chef Nicole Plue this past week.  I was there for the 3rd night of her Pastry: Breakfast & Brunch recreational course.  It was a really great experience.  Nicole is so patient with her students and everything she had them bake was delicious.  We had popovers, egg stuffed brioche muffins, pancakes, olive oil muffins, orange julius, and so much more.  There was also a butter tasting!  Did you know there's such a thing as goat milk butter, because there is and it's amazing!

 Butter tasting and jams.

Overall it was a fast paced and fun-filled week.  Get ready for this next week because we're gonna be butchering Wilbur! (That's a piggy for those who haven't read "Charlotte's Web.") 

And lastly, I finished the Curiosity Crawl!  I believe that I am the first student to finish the crawl so I'm pretty pumped.  I'll let you know what I win.

See you next week!

:)M