Cold Shortening

This time of year you might think cold shortening is a result of men joining the Polar Bear club but it is really something else. Cold shortening is the result of chilling a carcass too soon after slaughter. Most folks don't realize the amount of things that need to take place right after evisceration to create the maximum amount of tenderness in meat.
 First I'll do my best to explain what cold shortening is without getting too technical. When an animal is slaughtered the system for transporting oxygen to the cells shuts down, obviously. This causes pumps that move adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to shut down and allow calcium ions to

bind up proteins, all at the cellular level. This is part of the process of rigor mortis. If the carcass is chilled too fast, this condition is magnified, resulting in muscle contraction that shortens muscle fibers, making the meat tougher. Think about it, when you get cold you shiver and your muscles tighten up. Its not exactly like that but sort of. Also, there are natural enzymes that kick in after slaughter to break down and loosen muscle fibers but a cold shortened muscle will remain tougher and never achieve the tenderness levels of a properly chilled carcass. Hanging a carcass allows for some muscles to be stretched which minimizes cold shortening for some muscles.
 Preventing cold shortening can present problems for a processor. To prevent it studies show that the fresh pre- rigor carcass ideally should be kept at a balmy cave like temperature of 60F 16C for about 10 - 16 hours.  A large beef plant wants to move thousands of animals through each day can't wait quite that long so many will speed up the process by applying electrical stimulation to the carcass. Zapping the fresh carcass depletes much of the glycogen energy that would allow cold shortening to happen. I saw this at a Cargill plant years ago. It was like "CLEAR" and bam, the whole side of beef twitched. Another trick is to add a calcium chloride solution into the carcass which increases the activity of the endogenous enzymes, the enzymes that break down meat when it is aged.
 The old method of slow chilling was much more haphazard. If a carcass has a lot of exterior fat, a poor yield grade 4 or 5, the carcass will naturally chill slower, resulting in more tender meat. I can remember picking out hindquarters of beef with my dad in the markets on 14th street in NYC and he would always look for the extra fatty ones. They cost us more but the quality level was always much higher so we could charge accordingly. Plus we would buy an old bull carcass for lean beef to mix in the fat trims for our grind. That meat was tough like a shoe but perfect for grinding.
 I recently talked with John Jamison from Jamison Farm in Latrobe PA and he confirmed the 16 hour rule for keeping a carcass warm for the first part after slaughter. The USDA allows him to keep the carcass at this warm temperature for longer than what is considered normal. He says the quality of the carcass is greatly increased. Most of his production is with lamb but he has experimented with lean grass-fed beef also, with great results. It is a delicate balance between tender meat and food born illness. If a processor wants to allow a carcass to chill slowly they need to be diligent in keeping the process as clean as possible.
 Another factor that can effect cold shortening is the condition of the animal when it is alive. A calm animal that has had no food for 24hrs but not starved will be less likely to have the condition than an animal that is aggravated or stressed.
 One other experiment has been done to change the muscle structures pre-rigor. We normally hang a carcass by the gambrel on the back leg. This stretches certain muscles guaranteeing they cannot develop cold shortening. But what if we hang the carcass in different positions? This would allow for the stretching of muscles typically allowed to shorten. This opens the door for small processors to do some custom things. It is very difficult for a large processor to change the way they hang carcasses because everything is geared to the chain speed and equipment used to break down everything.
 A bit of history also. Farmers that slaughtered their own meats often did it in the fall when the temperatures would range from just above freezing to about 60F. An old timer that knew what they were doing would slaughter on a warm morning and hang the carcass for a few days in the barn with the temperature slowly lowering. Perfect condition for tenderizing.
 A friend of mine shot a deer this fall just when the weather turning a little warm. He typically hangs it for about a week before I cut it for him. He was worried about the warm temps and I told him to relax, he did and so did the muscle structure of his deer. It was one of the most tender wild caught meat I've ever worked with.
 So as the temperature once again plummets this week keep in mind not to cold shorten, leave that to the polar bears.

Teachable Tasks

Butcher?? In the old European systems of teaching this and other trades, students were immersed in
the craft as apprentices. They spent their time helping with the very basics, never touching the very expensive end of the craft. Time was spent cleaning, prepping, or simple tasks that wouldn't require much skill. There was always lots of repetition, doing a task many, many times to achieve accuracy.  It took a few years to move from apprentice to journeyman where the student was considered competent and could move from job to job with their craft, knowing they brought a specific skill set. They would continue learning, observing various styles that their own original master may not practice. Finally the journyman could become a master by showing their skills and passing tests in front of their peers. Once a master, they could start their own business with an understanding by creditors and customers that this person has the skills to succeed.
 In many restaurants or in many modern meat cutting situations it certainly does not require the skills of  the old style master butcher. The old masters were versed in live animal selection, slaughter techniques and offal cleaning. Those skills today wouldn't be necessary in most artisanal shops or a restaurant that purchases entire carcasses. A smaller shop that buys full carcasses would need a complete skill set to know how to maximize the yield and what to do with each cut. A restaurant that buys the whole animal would require someone that knows how to make it work into quality portions. A modern day "master" may be someone who understands butchery and cutting skills and has a complete knowledge of all of the bone structure and natural seams. They would understand the yield possibilities of the entire carcass.
 But in the modern era of meat being cut into subprimals, or even further, into pre-portioned cuts, back at processing plants, what skills do we still need to teach? What reasons are there for a retailer or restaurateur to cut any meat? Does it make sense to spend time valuable labor on something that can be purchased already done? These are questions chefs and retail managers need to answer for themselves. I have my own views on this subject but mine are tainted by the fact that I already have the skills and have been breaking down full carcasses for years. So here are some pros and cons of cutting in house as opposed to buying pre cut.

 Cons:

• Labor costs 
• Space to produce the product
• Space to store all the cuts
• Skill level of staff
• Equipment required
• Food safety

Pros:

• Cost savings
• Whole muscle cuts
• Custom creative options
• Advertised on menu or price list
• Teachable tasks

An example of a teachable simple task would be cutting a boneless 0x1 striploin into portion steaks. I never understand why any restaurant would purchase these as portion cuts. It takes no more than 10 minutes to trim the fat, remove some connective tissues and slice the individual portions and the typical savings by doing this in house are 10 to 20 %. The same goes for beef tenderloin. Very basic fabrication and not only that, a lot of tenderloin pre-cut portion cuts are bonded together using transglutiminase so they aren't true whole muscle cuts. The task of trimming basic sub-primals into portion cuts not only saves money in many cases but also creates a sort of pride by the cutter. The chef that cuts their own steaks will have more pride in that product.
 So what about the whole carcass? Is breaking down an entire beef side a teachable task? This is more debatable. This requires a lot more skill and some serious time. Beef is the most difficult when it comes to whole carcass use. If no band saw is present it requires a lot of difficult handsaw work. We do the side of beef in class and "bench break" the entire thing on a table but it is no easy task. Beside the physical work involved, there is also the matter of a lot of extra fat and trim that needs to be used in balance to the valuable steak cuts.
 Pork on the other hand is much more logical for in house butchery. A half hog can be broken down in just minutes. All of the parts can be used including the fat and many cured products can be made. Even if some errors are made during the breakdown, extra trim can be used for sausage or terrines.
 A lamb carcass is relatively easy but again the use of each cut must be balanced. There is a lot more leg and chuck meat in comparison to the rack and loin chops.
 A lot of the cutting tasks we might consider are visible on You Tube. I've used many clips as a study guide in class and the fact that you can show someone how to do a cut over and over is very helpful.
  All considered, there are many teachable meat cutting tasks that are ignored in many restaurants and retail stores and if the chef or manager would apply them they may find an increase in value.
 

Making the Movie

There are a lot of meat fabrication clips out there on you tube; some are very well done while others are very poor. How can a chef or butcher know which ones are worth a look? I search through a lot of them and occasionally suggest one to my students or coworkers. I've seen some horrible home movies of hog slaughter where amateurs attempt to explain how its done with very little regard for food safety etc. I've also watched industry videos that over simplify the process and sanitize the view, and focus on the equipment that is being sold. Many videos are made by other instructors in culinary schools around the country. These can be informative and might show a different style or technique. Then you have the anti-meat activists that will show some poor practices done typically at slaughter houses that are not managed well. These are meant to horrify and unfortunately will often be referred to as "industry" standards while actually they are the extreme.
 My own students will often post in-class videos which I sometimes assign as pre-class views for other students to get warmed up to the lesson. As butchers, we must realize that what we do each day, is found fascinating by many. What used to be done in farm households is now distant from what we see in most stores. Not many people will cut their own chicken breast let alone a large carcass.
 Here is a set of videos that shows how to breakdown a half hog in great detail by someone doing it in their own house. It has some good detail and well worth watching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsoK0gcG9as&list=PL69C2B028F82492F4&index=1  The cutter makes cuts that are not exactly industry style but much more of a custom style of cutting that many small shops are doing today. Some of the techniques are a little out of the norm but part of butchery is developing your own style. Check it out!

Silverskin Blues

The other day we had to denude 15 boneless pork loins to make a bunch of clean 4 oz. cutlets. Part of the process is to peel off the silver collagen on the outside of the loin. First I trimmed off the thin fat layer and then carefully inserted the knife under the collagen and peeled it off in strips trying to minimize the amount of meat taken off. This takes time and skill.

Removing collagen from the outside of cuts is something we teach at the CIA for cuts that are going to be sauteed. Denuding beef tenderloins for saute or carpaccio, veal leg sub primals for cutlets or scallopine, pork loins for medallions, or lamb loins for noisette, is part of the skill set a trained chef or butcher needs for creating refined meat portions. The skill also applies to fish butchery. Peeling a salmon is a common task that our students learn in the seafood class. Peeling a salmon and denuding a porkloin are cleaned very differently with the salmon laid skin side down and flat on the table while the loin is peeled skin up. So while peeling the loin I decided to see what would happen if I flipped it over and tried to clean it like a salmon. After a few gouges and mis-fires I got the hang of it. Instead of a thin section removed I got almost all of the silver off in one shot. It was not easy but it was fast! So next time your peeling a thick collagen band off a piece of meat, think like a fish butcher and flip it over, skin side down.

Large processors no longer peel either siver skin on meat or salmon skin. Today we have automated skinning machines that can do the job in seconds. The salmon skinner is super fast and requires basically no skill. Meat skinners require a little skill and the worker must where special gloves that shut off the machine if contact is made.

Kiwi, Papya and Sharp Pointy Things

Last class we decided to test out some meat tenderizing techniques. A while back I had purchased a Jaccard knife and we use it regularly to tenderize tougher veal cutlets, skirt steaks etc. I tell the students about how it is used on a larger scale by many portion cutting processors and has its attributes for introducing marinades deeper into the meat. It also has come under some scrutiny because of the problem of possible crosscontamination of bacteria into a steak type cut that will be cooked to medium rare or less. http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=250404

The Jaccard has its place in the kitchen and if used and cleaned properly it can be a good way to get cuts that are sitting on the tenderness "fence" to be made more palatable.

On to our testing. We chose to use the Beef Sirloin Flap which is palatable but often a little tough to be served as an unsliced portion. While the Jaccard works well we decided to try some other techniques that will do the job. We experimented with two other methods, applying Papya and Kiwi fruit to steak cuts. We peeled and sliced both fruits and messaged them into two separate steaks and left them loose wrapped over night. The third steak was simply Jaccarded without any marinade or spice. When it came time to cook them we seasoned all three with salt and pepper, lightly so as not to interrupt the naturally occuring tastes. They were cooked to medium rare individually in a heavy black skillet with a little rendered beef fat in the pan to prevent sticking.

The results? All three methods were effective in tenderizing the meat with the two fruit methods differing somewhat from the Jaccard. The mechanical method worked well but without any marinade, it turned out a little dry. It also cooked faster due to the ability for heat to "chimney" up the tiny holes that were pierced through it. Moisture had leaked out of the meat but it was still palatable.

The Papya worked well but left a lightly sweet flavor and carmelized quite a bit in the pan. Papya contains a protease enzyme, papain, which chemically breaks down the collagen muscle fiber sheaths within the muscle. Kiwi fruit also contains protease enzymes and the effects from placing it over the steak was also very effective. The Kiwi didn't have quite the same amount of sweetness but did leave a residual flavor. Both fruits broke down the fibers about equally resulting in a steak that could be cut with a regular steak knife with ease. At 24 hrs we did not experience a "mushy" texture that can happen when steaks are left too long. In a previous test we left a steak with Papya over a weekend and it became overly tenderized and very soft which resulted in an unatural texture. The meat fibers had basically disolved.

None of the three in this test were disagreable in taste but there were certainly differences. The question is how would they be used in the kitchen? If you are trying to maintain the original flavor of the meat, the mechanical system is probably best. There is no added flavor. If looking for an ingredient that will add some flavor and can do a nice job tenderizing these two fruits worked well. Other fruits containing protease enzymes are figs, pineapple, and honey dew melon. All of these will do the job but will also add flavor. Be sure not to over marinate due to the mush factor. A half of a kiwi can be enough for about 4 lbs of meat and it is easy to overuse it. http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/tip-tenderizing-with-kiwi-011683

My friend and butcher Josh Applestone had the opportunity to appear on the Martha Stewart Show. The show's theme was butchery and Josh and Martha cut up a half hog. http://www.marthastewart.com/article/how-to-butcher-a-pig

It was interesting to see how casual Martha was with this process but understanding her background as a kid hanging around a butcher shop, it was no problem for her. Today we just don't find kids that grow up around the craft of cutting meat. As children grow into adulthood they simply haven't experienced meat cutting or even shopping for meat from a real butcher. Maybe some people, with parents that hunted or who grew up on a farm setting, have witnessed some butchery, but with the demise of the local butcher, meat has become a distant thing of mystery. Many don't wish to know where their meat comes from or how it is processed. They want it quick, simple and easy to cook. But another type of consumer may want to know how their meat was raised and processed. In days gone by there were numerous local butchers that selected meats from large markets or from farms. Some shops were focused on quality while others on price, depending on the clientele. The butcher could answer some questions about where the meat came from, local or not. They were still in touch with the farm to table trail. Today we find the supermarkets purchasing through large volume jobbers who buy from the processors on a huge scale. The butcher in a supermarket will only know the brand name of the product and that may give a regional clue as to where the meat was raised or how but not as specific as the old style market butchers.

Now we find some individuals wanting to know more about butchery. So where can they go? To the local butcher shop? Not too likely. There are some demonstrations of butchery available at culinary schools. The CIA which I am partial to, of course, offers a basic meat class which I teach a few times a year. Josh and Jessica Applestone are offering some classes now through their shop at Fleishers in Kingston NY http://www.fleishers.com/, there are some locations on the west coast that offer classes now such as Avendano's in SanFrancisco. http://www.avedanos.com/classes.html I attended a class in NJ hosted by the Mangalitsa farm Mosefund in Northern New Jersey. It was taught by an Austrian butcher who showed some alternative cutting techniques. http://mosefund.com/ A quick search on the internet revealed a bunch of classes all over the place, often offered by small shops or restaurants. Some focus on curing and sausage making more than butchery and others focus on game fabrication. I have viewed a lot of clips on Youtube, some good, some very poor, be selective.

Often people claim the art of butchery is lost but today I find a lot of new interest and willingness to explore new techniques. So get out there and learn, like Martha!

The Master Retires

On September 16th 2009 Hans Sebald retired from the Culinary Institute of America. Hans had taught the meat class for over twenty years. Hans, for those who never met him, is an old style butcher originally from Bavaria, Germany. He was a "master" butcher meaning he had been trained as an apprentice and moved his way up in skills, understanding the entire process of butchery, start to finish. I worked with Hans for the past eleven years and when I say he was an old "style" butcher I can also say that Hans was always on the "cutting edge" of the meat industry. He was always learning and reading about our industry and how it intersects with the foodservice world. He was never old fashioned in his thinking and lessons. His students were always presented current knowledge about new style cuts, modern processing methods, foodsafety concerns and new menu ideas. I learned from Hans. His cutting skills were always very smooth and accurate but at the school it isn't simply about cutting but about showing students how to cut, explaining the steps in a way that a person who has never cut meat before can feel comfortable attempting the task. That lesson, the one of patience and clarity, is a lesson that I use every day. Hans was above all a great teacher. He taught literally thousands of students the basics of butchery. His priority was never showmanship, instead a desire to share his skill. As a teacher, he was stern, professional and always fair, but also he had a sense of humor that was never lacking. He often had a quick witted response to situations. We were touring a pork plant in Iowa once while on our summer break. The typical worker attire was big boots and heavy coats. He wore shorts! We asked him why and he simply answered "I'm on vacation".
I'll miss working with him and I can only hope to be as devoted to my students as he was to his. They were all lucky to have such a "master" of education as an instructor!