Day 13, Foundations III

The last couple of Monday's have been easy, and tonight was as well.  That's why I love Mondays at school.... so far they have eased us into the week.  The chef demoed for about 45 minutes on whole pork loin fabrication, trussing a pork loin, cutting pork cutlets, baby back rib fabrication and cutting pork bellies into bacon... So, now I know where the bacon comes from and how it is cut and prepared.  We watched a pork slaughter video which was pretty gross.  I couldn't even watch it at one point.  It was just as disgusting as the beef slaughter video we watched last week.  I am not a huge fan of pork - never have been. 

We made two BBQ sauces, an Asian sauce and a Carolina sauce.  We each had to truss a pork loin, then as a team we made the sauces, made the brine for the pork cutlets, cured the bacon, poached baby back ribs then grilled them and finally cut the pork butt (sounds tasty, doesn't it???) for carnitas which we are making tomorrow.  Pretty much all today was preparation for tomorrow.  We did eat the baby back ribs with the sauce - very tasty..  Here are some pics of the chef cutting the whole pork loin, cutting through the ribs and the last picture is one of bacon that has already cured and the one that we are getting ready to cure.