I'm a Bad Blogger...

OK - I've been bad. No posts for ages but the only excuse is that I've had too many exams, lesson, lectures, life,... and all that stuff.

So... I promise to do better (sounds like my school reports).

But I'm going to have to change this a little bit - doing stuff every week appears to be the problem (as I'm a lazy tyke) so I'm changing this blog to the stuff that is interesting - things that catch the attention, something different... probably only to me but I'll try to keep it vaguely coherent and to the point.

As a taster, where have I been this week and will be next...?

I'll be doing some updates very soon about my amazing first work placement at http://www.forestpig.com/ . Watch this space... er, sty... er, piggy pen,...

Watch out for future posts in fermentation...

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.

Week 3

Week 3

10th and 11th October - Dairy Introduction

Val Bines is a guru in the industry and what she doesn't know about the white stuff and what to do with it is not really worth knowing. First day was going through what milk is, the types and processes. This was followed by a tasting of milk... trying to differentiate between raw, pasturisted, semiskimmed, skimmed, UHT and Cravendale (pasturised & homogenised) is not an easy thing. Not surprisingly I only got the skimmed and semi-skimmed as those are the only drink. The afternoon was quickly setting of two lactic cheese (one with just lemon juice and one that had rennet) then off to taste cheese.

Clockwise from the:

Sparkenhoe Red Leicester (mmmm),

Berkswell (hard sheeps cheese - v nice),

Montgomery's (single herd, raw milk cheddar),

Appleby's Cheshire(I like a crumbly),

Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire (2 and 3 day curds and the best Lancashire I've tasted since I was a kid),

Swaildale (goat and good),

Tunworth (unpasterised soft and rather good!),

Wigmore (soft sheep and fantastic)

Stawley (lactic goats from somerset, very young)

Barkam Blue

Stichelton (raw cows and great)

The next day in the dairy was a real treat. As this is going to be my minor studies, we'll be covering most of what we did in much more detail so will not here... that and we haven't got the recipes yet. As well as the lactic cheese, we started a coulommier and a york/cambridge as well as the cheddars for next years graduation. Joy!

12th October - Estate tour

Again, we're not allowed to publish photos but we saw much more of the estate and plans for its future as well as being given some of the history - tunnels, underground ballrooms, chapels, the virgins corridor, biomass boilers, small businesses on the grounds,... and lots of stables. Amazing place. At times it felt like a sales pitch but great to see and know what your part of.

13th October - Health and Safety

Chartered institute for environmental health Level 2 Award in Health & Safety in the Workplace... thrilling. Theresa Tmlinson was good though. Lots of notes that probably need to be written up but not here. The exam seemed pretty straight forward though.

14th October - Chocolate

Ross Sneddon was great. Chocolate is not something I'd thought too deeply about previously (and didn't even know that it too is a fermented food) but to taste the real deal is very enlightening. I have to admit to feeling a bit sick by lunchtime and felt rather jittery most of the day but the ganache we made, like so many of these courses over the last couple of weeks, is remarkably simple and easy to do at home.

Week 2

Week 2

3rd October - Library Resources and Learning

Chat about issues around artisan food as well as library resources. Amazing books there but quite scary how much reading is going to have to be got through for the major course, let alone the minor, business studies, sensory evaluation, food quality, etc. I think I'll need two heads to get through all this. Reading 'Salt: A world history' at the mo - very interesting stuff and amazing anthropological references.

4th October - Patisserie

Yannick is a hoot - great fun, passsionate. Again, showed us a simple approach for pastry which will in fact be very useful. Need to speak to him more as the major kicks in to do with product developments, particularly the PPP.

The apple compot tarte and quiche were just great

5th October - Harper Adams University

Part of the course is degree level module credits - food quality and sensory evaluation - and looking round there is an eye-opener as to what agriculture and food production systems are like in this country... or real world, depending on your perspective. They use intensive methods and you can tell everyone on the course affirmed their beliefs in approach held by the school.

Reality check!

6th October - Graduation for last years students

We're very luck to be situated in the grounds and estate of Welbeck Abbey. It is still a private house and therefore we're not allowed to publish photos so you'll have to believe me that the the place is amazing. The great and the good were in attendance but short day.

7th October - Welbeck Abbey Brewery, Claire Monk

Claire, a former microbiologist, runs the brewery and came and spoke to us about the brewery, give us a tour and lead a beer tasting. The brewery only started in May and is a collaboration/joint venture between the Welbeck estate and Kelham Island brewery. A true micro-brewery and some good beer. Not keen on Hentriette personally or Red Feather but Earnest George is one I could like and I was very surprised by Portland Black ( a dark, chocolatey, beer that's won prises - couldn't drink a lot but darn tasty).

Week 1

Week 1
The hard works starts soon but I want to get down a few things from the last two weeks that served as the induction/introduction to/eye-opener to the school.

27th September - Food hygiene
Something I was slightly nervous about but seems, with a great tutor Sally Dobbs, to be fairly straight forward and logical. There's process that I have to write up but the exam at the end did seem to be pretty simple. Let's say that if I fail it, I'll be the one shooting myself.


28th September - Baking
Emmanuel is an excellent teacher and actually made everything very simple - essential for a newbie like me to the subject. Why have I never done this baking thing before.

The results were a revelation when juxtaposed with the simplicity of the method.

 

29th September - Charcuterie

I met Kate earlier in the week but to sit with her and Chris just got me excited to get onto my major course as soon as possible. Kate's philosophy of field-to-fork verbalised my thoughts on the process but in so much more detail and experience and I think it will be an fantastic to learn from Kate, Chris and Viv when the serious stuff starts.

30th September - Tasting and Culture

Francis Percival is a guy who knows his stuff. The subject of taste is wide and deep and I don't know much about it. Verbalising sensory perceptions is difficult but learning the language to communicate to gain common understanding is something that will be a challenge but very important... I am officially an 'non-taster', officially.

The thing about food is that there's always something new to learn. If I was going to follow a new direction in pursuit of producing food that is as good as it can be and produced with care, I had to be around people who I could learn from, be inspired by and become part of community that had a similar ethos and ethics to mine; a place where creativity can be enhanced with production rigor. This is why I am here at the School of Artisan Food.

http://www.schoolofartisanfood.org/Default.aspx

Already, it surpasses every expectation that I had. The quality of tutors, staff and fellow students here could not be better and the over-riding feeling I have, in these first two weeks, is that my horizons have been expanded exponentially.

For those who follow this, it will be a personal log of my time here (and maybe beyond) as an aid to learning and expanding thoughts and ideas to investigate... or ramblings, depending on how you look at it.


The future is fermented!