CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
9
Steve here must be a brother from another mother. I slice/chop veggies because I really don’t like cleaning the food processor, plus it never gets the stuff the way I want it anyway. For ginger I use the microplane grater, though. I don’t mind mincing garlic but always hated mincing ginger, but now that I’ve learned how easy the ginger is I’ve started grating the garlic that way, too.
I haven’t had sirloin, picanha, round or ribeye in years that I hadn’t cut from the subprimal myself. Never saw the sense in people buying STL-style ribs, either - the flaps you cut off to square the spare are the cook’s treat, as far as I’m concerned.
I could never break down 1 chicken per minute, though. Takes me more like 10 minutes but I guess I’m fussy about it. Sure is a lot cheaper than buying parts. I usually only buy parts when I’m doing a lot of one thing, like hot wings or a bunch of bbq leg-thigh quarters, but recently went off the reservation and got some bone-in breasts to go with the leg-thighs because I decided on my menu way to late to thaw a whole one.
I will happily send my pots and pans somewhere for handwashing! I often wash them by hand because it seems more efficient than trying to get them in a dishwasher. And the Breville oven instructions say wash the parts by hand.
I make many of the same choices as previously posted, but not because it’s the harder way. Usually it’s because I don’t want to pull out and have to clean an appliance or mandolin when I could just use a knife and cutting board, which are almost always out anyway. Same with a whisk and a bowl, vs a mixer or something. Doing it by hand often seems more successful for me with small quantities.
I DO use a stick blender, and buy animal parts unless there is a special I can’t resist, because usually there are just two of us, and one of us is pretty picky.
I probably takes me more like 2-5 minutes to break down a chicken but I have never timed it. I’m not sure why I don’t buy cut up. Probably because I tend to be frugal but also because it allows me to be flexible. I never know when I might decide to roast it whole or spatchcock.
I have a microplane that I never use. I thought I’d use it for ginger and garlic, but it turns out I hate washing it! As for the chicken, if you had to bone 30-40 chickens a day, you’d get pretty good at it. Interestingly, it takes me more time to break down a chicken into bone-in pieces than boneless! The only drawback to buying whole chickens is they don’t store too efficiently in the freezer when you stock up on them on sale. It’s like stuffing your freezer with bowling balls.
•Chiles Rellenos—broil, sweat, peel, seed, stuff all by hand. Hand whip egg whites, etc. for the batter
•Hollandaise Sauce—in the top of the double boiler whisking it all by hand
•Dungeness Crab—buy whole, crack it up at home
•Operating a hand can opener, sharpening my own knives, canning
•I prepare chopped garlic, ginger, shallots, onions ahead and freeze
•Cut up my own fruit and vegetables (instead of supermarket prepared)
•Pour over coffee
•Gravy made in the roasting pan at Thanksgiving, hand mashed/whipped potatoes, too
•Outside the kitchen: tune up my own bicycle and car, changing out studded tires, shoveling the driveway and decks of snow (sometimes it takes like 9 hours, but then I can skip the gym for a day or two), gardening, eradicating ground squirrels and army worms, line or drying rack for laundry
•Repeating others: handwashing delicate dinner and silverware and clothing, cutting up larger cuts of meat and other items, portioning for future use
You are a beast! Let’s please re-connect about Dungeness when in season, and the rellenos. I have been growing my own poblanos, but still have mad respect for the poblanos I can buy.
I used to do air cooled Volkswagens, but not anymore. And please stop me if/when I try to grow hard necked garlic again.
Pasta is always kneaded by hand, then cut using a stamp or knife. What I do not do any more is roll it out by hand. I much prefer to use the KA attachment. I’m sure that’s a holdover from not having any countertop space for larger projects. Now, it’s a habit.
Chickens are 99% of the time bought whole and butchered how I would like them to be. Whole birds, here, are much more inexpensive than parts and the good thing is you get free soup from the carcass.
If I buy multiple chickens, I break them down before freezing. Except maybe one incase I want to roast whole.
That is interesting. I never do boneless. I’m trying to picture that. I can see how cutting the breast directly off the carcass would be faster. Is that what you mean? Or are you including legs, thighs and wings?
ETA: I watched a youtube video on this. Cool! I see how with some practice I could get fast at that. I don’t normally want deboned but might have to do it like that sometime just for the heck of it.
Does making veal stock, following Thomas Keller’s French Laundry cookbook recipe count? It usually takes me two or three days to complete all the steps as specified. (Plus time spent hunting down the veal bones…)
I have any number of “modern gadgets” - mandolin, KA lift bowl mixer, stick blender, large food processor, small 1 cup food processor, plug in temp-control deep fryer, whatever . . . .
the mandolin get used for very selected tasks where consistency of slice-thickness is required - cucumber&onion salad . . . scalloped potatoes
cabbage slaw I do with a knife - I like the slight variation in thickness…
the one cup food processor get used for Caesar salad dressing . . .
only recently broke out the ‘big FP’ for doing a tuna salad / paste thing . . . ala deli-tuna-salads. had not been used in years . . . .
kneading dough - bread/pizza/other - the KA and spiral mixer.
whipped cream / egg whites to stiff / butter from heavy cream . . . KA & whisk
used to do egg whites for souffle by hand in a biggie copper bowl. that got old, real fast…
6-8-10" chef knives, 6-8-10" slicers, boning knife, 10" bread knife . . .
have knife, will slice.
but for some tasks (like 15 mins of pizza dough knead . . . ) I do love the things that plug in…
But I plan to try making mayonnaise and cut down some pork ribs this summer, although I am the only one likely to eat it. Husband likes baby backs . I certainly have a lot to learn and appreciate.
… maybe so!
. I certainly have a lot to learn and appreciate.