10.07 Butcher’s Handbook, 20 pages

Description

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Food and Beverage Manual

Kitchen Manual

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The Butchery

The butcher shop is where all the meats, poultry and seafood are centralized, processed, controlled, and portioned as requisitioned by the various outlets. During the four weeks of training here, the employees will be taught the basics of how a hotel butcher shop operates and be expected to execute the basic techniques of meat and seafood butchering.

Sanitation/Food Handling

It is very important to keep the fish preparation area separated from the meat processing area to avoid cross contamination and to preserve the flavor integrity of each item.

Every effort must be given to make sure that all doors are kept shut and that all flying insects are prevented from entering.

Never work with large amounts of material outside of the refrigerator/ 4 hours processing time is the maximum recommended length of time

Work surfaces must be constantly cleaned up after each item is processed; this clean-up applies to your knives also!

Scraps accumulate quickly here, make sure that you dispose of them quickly either into the garbage can or return them to the refrigerator.

To preserve freshness and to help prevent contamination, all items that have been processed fully or partially should be wrapped in PLASTIC FILM FOR THE REFRIGERATOR and then with ALUMINUM FOIL FOR THE FREEZER if they are to be kept frozen longer than 30 days. Alternatively they should be vacuumed as well.

Although it is not recommended, sometimes frozen products must be quickly defrosted and that means placing in COOL RUNNING water. When defrosting, never use warm water and never mix different types of products in the same sink. Remember, It is best to defrost slowly in the refrigerator to prevent the build up of bacteria and to maintain higher quality products/defrosting in water will noticeably decrease the flavor and texture quality of your product.

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Refrigeration

Meats
The butcher shop is divided into three areas, one for working with meat, and the other part for working with seafood and the third one for fruits and vegetables. Next to the meat butchery side is located the large cooler that has located inside of it the freezer. The butcher shop requests it’s material from the markets through chef’s office, process it and stores the meats or seafood in the appropriate cooler or freezer. From there the material is distributed.
Keep all meats and seafood in the allocated areas only and do not mix them. The more delicate items that need a more constant temperature or that can be damaged by water vapor from condensation should be stored “deep” inside the walk-in. Make sure that the doors are always fully closed, especially that of the freezer. A common BAD practice is to pile up everything as close to the walk-in door as possible. Because this is the place that will experience the greatest temperature changes this is the worst place to be storing anything. The proper operating temperatures are marked on the doors; learn what they are and make it a habit to constantly monitor the readings to make sure the boxes are operating at their proper levels.

Seafood
For seafood goes the same procedure, however, seafood will always have to remain fresh and should not be frozen if possible. All seafood must be cleaned upon arrival and packed / wrapped and stored immediately and be ready for transportation to the resort.
The proper operation and utilization of the refrigeration located in the butcher shop is very critical to the wholesomeness of the products being processed there. Pay strict attention to the organization that exists here and respect your installation that exists here.

Equipment & Safety

Knives
These must be kept sharp to be both cost efficient and safe to use. The sharp knife cuts more easily requires less force and therefore is less liable of going out of control. Remember to cut away from your body, and especially here in the butcher shop, be careful not to bump into someone who is working because he probably has a knife in his hand.

Table saw
This is the most dangerous piece of automatic equipment in the butcher shop, you must be trained very thoroughly on this machine before you will be allowed to use it. When using this machine you must remember to have your feet solidly planted on a dry surface and to concentrate on what you are doing. DO NOT GET DISTRACTED! Do not force an item through the blade because a slight slip

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could easily run your hand into the saw-blade: but rather, let the blade slowly cut it’s way through the item being processed.
NOTE: DURING THE APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING PROGRAM, NO TRAINEE WILL BE ALLOWED TO USE ANY PIECE OF ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT BEFORE THE SUPERVISOR OF THE AREA HAS PROPERLY INSTRUCTED THEM IN THE USE OF THE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT AND THEN AUTHORIZES THE TRAINEE TO OPERATE IT. THIS APPLIES FOR THE WHOLE 16 WEEKS.

Food Chopper & Grinder (Buffalo Chopper)
This machine is used to chop medium hard to soft items. It is not made to chop and cut items like bones or hard shells because the blades and driveshaft would be damaged. When using the grinder attachment make sure the blade is on the correct way/ that you have the right sized grid plate in and that you are using the proper type of “pusher”. Wood and metal, if caught in the worm will splinter and send pieces into the food. Like all pieces of machinery, first learn how to assemble, use, dismantle and clean the item before you attempt to use it AND GET PERMISSION TO OPERATE IT FROM YOUR SUPERVISOR!
Portion Scale
In order to control the costs and monitor or locate problems, the butcher shop must utilize the concept of portion-control as much as possible. Portion-control means to control, to count the number of portions leaving the area, but for this control to succeed each portion must not only be of the specified size, but each portion must be of the same weight. Unless you have many, many years in the butcher shop, the only way to accomplish this “uniform ness -of-portion” is to use the portion scale: a portion too small cheats the customer, a portion too large cheats the company.

Slicer
Another high accident machine, but if you follow the rules and use common sense you should not have an accident. Always use the hand guard plate for keeping hold of the item being sliced and never hold the item with your hand. Make sure the machine is unplugged before you attempt to dismantle or clean/clothing can snag on the switch and when you step back turn the motor on. If the food holding plate is not moving easily, turn off the machine and inform your supervisor, don’t attempt to force it

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MEAT
What is meat?
Definition
The term is usually applied to the flesh (muscle) of beef, lamb, pork, and veal. Muscle is usually composed of 70% water depending on the amount of fat present in the flesh; of the remaining 30% which represents the solids, 80% is protein and about 20% is fat(fat itself is about 15% water).
Tenderness
This characteristic is related to what muscle is being utilized in the cooking process. The nature of the muscle’s tenderness is itself based on the thickness of it’s muscle fibers and the amount of the connective tissue which holds the bunches of muscle fibers together. In the butcher shop tenderness can be increased in a variety of ways:
Aging
Also known as “hanging” or “ripening”. This process is an enzymatic which improves the flavor and tenderness as the meats hang in a controlled environment. The best temperature for this process is 34-36F, and relative humidity held at 85%. During the first 14 days the process proceeds rapidly, but improvement slows down noticeably after three weeks. Beef is best aged by this process; lamb is rarely aged and veal and pork never. The higher grades of meat are the ones that give the best results because meat must be well covered with an inside and outside layer of fat. Meat on the bone is preferred because of the support the bone gives. During hanging mold growth called “whiskers” and some discoloration appear on the surface and must be trimmed away before use. Appreciable shrinkage due to evaporation also occurs and the piece being aged may reduce in weight up to 20% by the time it is trimmed and finished, but has greatly improved tenderness and flavor. Over-aging will produce a product that has bad odor, and flavor, is slimy and cannot be used for service because it has spoiled.
Pounding
This is a mechanical way, and can be accomplished with the use of the mallet. Veal is often tenderized this way (scallopines). This process physically breaks the connective tissue, “elastin” At our resort we do not support this technique.

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