I fabricated my very first bird last night! Yes, that's right. Oh wait, you've never heard of the phrase "fabricating a bird" before? Basically it means you cut it up into smaller pieces for cooking. Wait, rather than explain, check out the pics of our team's fabricated guinea fowl below!
Step 1 - flap bird's wings (just kidding, lay it breast side down):
Step 2 - Hack through both sides of back bone in order to remove it, pull out plastic-y keel bone located on the inside of the bird in order to cut all the way through the breast:
Step 3 - make a cut to separate the legs from the breasts. It's pretty obvious once you have the bird cut in half to figure out where to cut - there is nothing but skin there:
Step 4 (no picture) was to crack the 2nd joint on the wing and cut through, then separate the 2nd and third joint. Leaving the first joint connected the breast makes it an "airline cut."
I was a little nervous but it was fun! My team cut up a guinea fowl and a muscovy duck. We got to cook and taste duck livers (really rich, too rich for my taste, but interesting), we made a duck taco with the leg (really delicious), and duck kidneys (not for me).
All of this learning would not have been possible without a visit from Brian Reff of Grimaud Farms of California who not only works at Grimaud but is also a purchasing professor in the Culinary Department at GCC. An interesting guy, he gave us lots of information on the different kinds of poultry that exisits - from fryers to roasters to Magrets to Pekins to Moulards. It was an interesting lesson for sure. Unfortunately, the Pekin ducks that he brought in had their heads and feet still attached:
Final thought - did you know that Pekin duck is the kind of duck used to make Peking duck? Pekin is the duck, Peking is the method of cooking Pekin duck. Just a little fact for the day.
Chow for Now! :)
the worst thing i ever had to do in zoology lab was pluck a chicken. ugh. i'd love to see some info on the bird types. . .
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