Week 4

Week 4
17th October 

The introductions are over and so it's down to business, literally. Monday morning and business studies are first on the agenda. Just setting out the course, introductions and definitions but it's slightly comforting that I kind of get it all. Assessments, essays and business plans are all in the realms of being able to achieve... but a dragon den-style pitch at the end, I'm not sure really fits with my idea of the serious side of business. It feels more like it should be entertainment and for it to affect the outcomes of credits is a bit disconcerting. That said, pitches are fine so whatever the experience that comes out of it, I'm sure I'll come to conclusions and leanings that can be judged as relevant at the time... and besides, there will apparently be money on the table (although I'd like to know more about who's offering and what terms).

The next session was study skills, something that is a bit alien to me. It seems to be that there are specific formats of writing and referencing that I'll need to get clear. I can see that I'll have to get some help from Sheila when the writing stuff gets going. One contradiction already is that Sheila has told us we must write in the third person, yet Kate wants it to be personal... I'm sure we'll work it out some how.

18th October

First Minor day with Val and all three students. To me, this is going to be great as we're going to get lots of direct contact with Val but there'll be no hiding either. Dairy is much more scientific in it's approach as the processes involved are more complex so the tutorial part of the day was more about milk, it's structure and physiology of the the animals in producing milk... as well of course, lots of anacdotes of Val's vast knowledge. I could sit all day and listen. In the afternoon we visited Colnethwaite(?) farm on the estate and met Richard Hopkins the farm manager. A really nice guy and of course very knowledgable. The farm produces milk for Stichelton cheese which on the same site. Some bare fact:

165ish head herd

Closed herd – grow own replacements

15-20% turnover of stock/year

50-55kg of feed/head/day in winter if allowed outside

If kept inside, -10% feed, yield increases but not happier cows

Average industry age of dairy cow – 2.8yrs, theirs is over 7.

Their average milk from the dairy herd is about 8-8500lts/yr

And here's some of the little darling's:

19th October
And so to the meat...

As with the other parts of the course, introductions and the syllabus were explained As with the other tutors, Viv Harvey is an expert in his field and his knife skill are quite amazing. First though were the knife types, sharpeners and sharpening along with safety. All incredibly important for the butchers trade. In essense though, all that is required is a boning knife, a 10/12" steak knife and a saw. Cleavers are out and from what Viv was saying, I can get that... no more Leaver the Cleaver jokes.

Viv then broke down a half pig to the primal cuts to hind, middle and front. Prior to this though decisions should be made to what is to be done with the meat as end produce but for this instance, demonstrating these primals was the point. The hind and middle cut is made between the 1st and second vertebrae which just clips the pelvis. 

I think the tenderloin and flare fat is removed first but I'll have to check that. The middle and front is cut at the 5th rib with the saw, cleaning the saw dust off straight after the cut. When splitting the middle into two halves, it depends on how you want the belly, spare ribs and loin (chop). The length of rib on the loin chop is normally a proportion of the width of the eye of loin.

And so you end up with a piece of perfect loin for chops

20th October
Next day was with Chris and Kate, going through the meat supply chain, talking about charcuterie (my favourite subject) and tasting...

and tasting, as well as making our first sausages. One of the shoulders was boned and trimmed, then measure out to recipes for a toulose and a traditional british breakfast sausage. Very simple with the only difference between the two being the rusk and egg is added as a filler/binder in the banger.

We had some issues with the old equipment but overall they turned out pretty well considering. I will own up as say that we didn't string them - that was Chris who showed us the difference in french and british method - here's the british that Will and I did.

21st October
So we have a lot of meat and we have a plan

Watching Richard seam butcher the other shoulder was like Viv - it's like a dance; pure elegance. We pretty much got it all done and had a surprise visit from Alison Parente right at the end. Must have looked good as we were all finishing the last bit so the products were looking good, there were good smells wafting about with the rendering of the flare fat the the pates in the over and it just looked busy. I the heads and hocks went into a brine for the week. The basic brine is 1lt of water, 100g of salt, then we added 1tsp Black pepper and  1o of white 3 cloves, 6 bay leave and 50g sugar.


Good start.