Today
was butchering day. Being one of only three people with cars, I volunteered to
drive three classmates to Kinnealey’s, a meat processing plant in Brockton,
Massachusetts. I got my first taste of Medford morning rush hour traffic. I
spent 40 minutes going 1 mile (and was thus very late in picking up my
classmates).
We
donned mesh hair nets (and the guide also donned a mesh BEARD net), winter
coats, and large uniform smocks and made our way through the facility. After
passing through a very average-looking cubicle office, we went through a giant
door hung over with a thick, flexible plastic sheet and found ourselves in the
large beef processing area. There were perhaps a dozen workers at different
stations. Several were simply cutting down primal into specific cuts of meat.
Some stations were processing those specific cuts into packaged portions. We observed
a state-of-the-art cryovac machine, which was being used to package much of the
meat. It was fascinating to see the chunks of meat being fed into the grinding
machine. The round mouth of the device was at least six inches wide. At my
favorite station, a middle-aged woman was carefully rubbing and rolling cuts of
meat over a special shaving device which is designed to remove the silver skin
off of meat more accurately (and thriftily) than humans are capable of. It
looked a lot like a giant safety razor set into a stainless steel table. I
wonder how much one of those machines go for!
After
passing through all of the stations in the beef area, we passed through another
set of plastic doors and entered the poultry room. All poultry is kept in a
separate rooms due to risk of cross contamination. Our guide explained that
working with chicken is much more difficult than beef because of its higher
moisture content. The workers in the poultry room wore clear plastic forearm
gloves on top of the requisite smocks to protect their clothing. One was
particularly adept at her job and busily flung chicken thigh after chicken
thigh into a pile across her station.
Once
out of the poultry room, our guide took us through the large warehouse of
packaged meats and assorted grocery items. I was surprised to see how many
non-meat products they offer. I asked the guide about this and he said that
about 20% of their stock is non-meat, and is offered much in the way that
supermarkets put impulse-grabbing items like candy and gum by the front
registers. In the case of Kinnealey’s, their “impulse” items were exceptionally
good-quality charcuterie, balsamics, aged cheeses, and the like. I had to
resist the urge to enter Shop Mode and single out coveted items for myself.
In
our afternoon session, a visiting chef demonstrated the butchering of a whole
lamb. It was quite jarring to see an entire lamb carcass turn into specific
chunks of meat. After showing us the basics, Chef gave us parts to finish
breaking down ourselves. My classmate and I took turns breaking down one lamb
leg into chunks for stew. This involved the use of a very large saw. I felt
very badass and yet very frustrated by my inability to cut through the bone
easily. It was a wonderful learning opportunity! Next week Chef JJ will show us
how to turn the chunks we cut into a lamb stew. I like that the program is set
up such that things we use for one purpose end up serving another function.
There is not a lot of waste!
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