The Other Red Meat

I probably offended rabbit pet owners with my earlier blog on rabbit "food" by discussing “how to remove the head”, and now I tip-toe into other pet and food taboos by discussing the “other red meat—Horse meat”.

During our chef’s tour of a French outdoor market, we bought horse meat at a chevaline stand. Horse meat is found in specialty butchers and stands but also in grocery stores. The organization La Viande Chevaline in France promotes the horse meat market by listing recipes, nutrition benefits and pictures that include a sexy woman fork-feeding a sexy man tasty morsels of horsemeat. This organization contrasts with pet and sporting organizations in the US that lobby to ban the processing and sale of horsemeat in the US.

Despite opposition to horse meat consumption, US imports in 2004 of this meat product rank highest among French imports with:
· USA at 24%,
· Argentina at 18%, and
· Canada at 15%.
These imports are necessary because French production of horse meat only meets 38% of the demand. This implies that horse meat is popular in France; however, demand has not increased despite marketing efforts. I’ve reviewed several articles on why this may be the case, but I mostly wonder if price is an issue since horse meat has a history of acceptance in French culture. The average price in 2004 was 13 euro/kg or in current 2007 dollars about $9 per pound, similar to the price of veal.

While I could dwell on the philosophical, religious, cultural and socio-economic considerations for why to eat or not eat horse meat, I will bail out and say “hey, I’m a nutritionist, so is this good eats or not?” One of our chefs’s mentioned that horsemeat had only 2% fat which seemed incredible to me. So I did some research and found several web sites that indeed indicated 2-3% fat. But when I looked at the data, these sites had calculated percent fat based on weight, not percent of calories. A gram of fat is equal to 9 calories, so fat content is meaningful based on a percent of total calories, not percent of weight.

At 30% saturated fat, low cholesterol, high iron and low calories per gram by weight, horse meat compared to beef looks nutritionally advantageous. Particularly since the beef cuts are shown as trimmed to 0% fat (see http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/) for more details and my nutrition table below.

But does it taste good? Check out the picture—only a few pieces remained soon after the chef prepared it for our picnic. To me it tasted like a good cut of beef, but I’m not really a red-meat eater, instead I pounced on the cheese platter (talk about fat content...).

Baguette Etiquette and Sourdough Invasion

So this is me with my favorite French starch. And yes, people carry just purchased baguettes around like this on their way home—it’s not a stereotype. This baguette was purchased after I had prepared my dinner, poured my red wine and realized I had no baguette for my meal: horrors. So I raced out in the rain to my favorite late night boulangerie and procured my .85 Euro (1.29$) baguette.

So, if you look close, you’ll notice I ended up eating some on my walk back to the apartment. I’ve been thinking I’m gauche and piggish looking doing this, but our Parisian friend, Michel, informed me this is ok baguette etiquette. David Lebowitz in his blog further explained this tendency. Apparently, munching on the “quignon” (pronounced Keenyon), the crispy end of the baguette, is common. Good, because I can never wait until I get home to start munching.

So, how many calories are consumed by such munching? Of course, I measured this on my digital scale like any good nutrition nerd. I discovered I’d eaten a fourth of the baguette on my way home (remember I did walk to and from school, briskly, carrying a heavy knife set, and cooked 5 hours…). The entire loaf was 260 grams, and my 65 grams was about 160 calories. This is similar to two slices of typical sandwich bread, but oh so much better. By French law, baguettes have to be 250 grams, so my favorite boulangerie is on the up-and-up.

My favorite loaf is Baguette l’ancienne because it is levain or contains sourdough starter. Since I miss my husband’s fabulous fresh sourdough, this has to do; however, French sourdough is no yeast contestant for the tangy American version. I’ve been told this by Parisians who appreciate sourdough. However, our tangier version (think San Francisco or Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis—the lactic acid bacteria responsible for the sourdough flavor) is considered “trop acid” or too acidic for other Parisian palates. But L. Sanfranciscensis may be migrating to France. In a recent article of Food Microbiology, the microbiota of four industrial French sourdoughs were dominated by our American bacteria—oh no, another incursion into French culture.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/08/baguettes.html for more information on baguettes.

Caul fat: intestinal delight

So, you want to stuff your chicken or pork and keep it from bursting during cooking. Just reach into your kitchen fridge for your Caul fat, you know the fatty intestine linings of cows or pork that you pick up at your local grocer. Well, actually if you really want this lacy, translucent fat (anatomically speaking it’s called omentum) to wrap foods for baking or roasting, you’re going to need a good butcher shop. But here in France, it’s not so difficult to obtain. Thank goodness! Otherwise I would not have had a chance to play with this intestinal delight.

Caul fat did work great for keeping my “farci” or stuffing of pork and chicken in my “Jambonette” (a style of Habillage or cutting and dressing my leg/thigh piece to resemble a ham). Other non-innard techniques for stuffing control include sewing the skin together with a trussing needle, or how about the simplest—wrap your meat or poultry in some aluminum foil and remove near the end of cooking to brown your meats. I will say that caul does help keep the meat most and mostly melts away near the end of cooking. Plus, I have this cool picture of the spidery web look of intestine linings.

Brunoise and Bandaids

Le Cordon Bleu “Lexique” or glossary defines Brunoise as “Vegetables cut into very small regular cubes, about 2 x 2mm”. Unfortunately it doesn’t explain why you would want to cut vegetables to .08 square inches. Therefore, most students surmise it is simply a form of chef’s torturing students. I suppose you could say it looks petite and pretty, but at my age, I need reading glasses to decide if this is true.

Frankly, I think it’s another French way of using vegetables as garnish and avoiding actually having to eat them. I make this limited and nutrition-centric observation after 6 weeks of boiling vegetables to al dente texture, straining them through colanders so only the juice essence remains or turning 1 kilo of vegetables into a handful of decorate vegetables.

Here’s evidence of the effect of brunoise, so you decide: 1) a picture of Chef's beef stroganoff with rice and a brunoise of zucchini, haricot verts (beans) and carrots versus: 2) a picture of my fingers after trying to clean my knife of obnoxious brunoise particles that attach to the knife when cutting them (plus one bandage for a blister due to cleaning a hot stove). Here’s a site that summarizes brunoise and several other French cutting / torture techniques. http://www.lacaterer.com/knife-skills.html

Bloody Meats Part 2: I've become too French...

How to tell when red meat is cooked: Ignore your watch. Oh, and please, “No thermometers” says our French chef with a sniff and hand-wave to dismiss this ridiculous idea. Instead use the "fat pad" of your thumb--you know, the old Abductor pollicis.

How do I personally know the fat pad technique works? I actually cooked red meat too bloody for a French chef. In my effort to prove I could cook my red meat the French style rare or “bleu”, I tossed out years of fearing I would poison my guests or cooking students with undercooked meat. And, I ignored my kitchen friend, the thermometer, which I had brought into the kitchen and hidden under a piece of parchment paper for fear of mockery by the chef if discovered. In France I have evolved from a person who doesn’t eat red meat to “hey, this piece of bloody meat looks pretty tasty to me.”

I failed to cook my meat to “bleu” because I tried to use another chef’s recommendation regarding how long to cook red meat for different grades of doneness (see Nov 25th blog). I now know that this chef's grill must be fiery hot and as I’ve always preached “it’s done when it’s done, not when the clock says so”. So here’s the fat pad technique (see links below for credits):


Index Finger = Rare with internal temperature around 125F. Feels soft and squishy, like a sponge

Middle Finger = Medium Rare with internal temperature around 145F (Our French chef says around 135F). Feels firmer but yielding, like a Nerf football

Ring Finger = Medium with an internal temperature around 160F (our French chef says around 145F). Feels slightly yielding, like a racquetball.

Pinky Finger = Well with an internal temperature around170F (our French chef says why would you ruin meat this way, but if you do the temperature is around 150F). Feels springy, like a tennis ball.

So here's my offending piece of meat, with an artichoke and bernaise sauce and twice cooked potatoes (pommes pont neuf style).

Finger doneness pictures from Men's health magazine with link found at http://lifehacker.com/software/grilling/determine-the-doneness-of-a-steak-267250.php

Deglazing Sucs

Even if you’re not into gourmet cooking, when you pan sear or roast meats, deglazing the pan can give you a quick and flavorful sauce or gravy. Of if you are in a French kitchen, particularly at the Cordon Bleu, you can produce a complicated version involving 50-60 liquid reductions and use of 30-40 chinois strainers (perhaps I exaggerate), but the French fondness for intensifying protein flavors and straining the resulting juices and sauces to silky textures contrasts with my KISS cooking approaches (keep it simple…).

Anyway to deglaze (or Déglacer) a pan, you remove (decanter) the meat and add a thin coat of a liquid, generally water, stock or wine to the pan used to cook the meat, fish or poultry. Using a scraper or spoon, you scrape at the carmelized or browned materials and protein bits stuck to the pan bottom. According to our classroom interpreter this is the “yummy bits” or “little brown bits”. Often these are referred to as the “fond”; however this is an incorrect use of fond.

In French, these are called the “sucs” (pronounced sook) from the word sucre (sugar). These bits get mostly dissolved during the scraping and swishing of the deglazing liquid. Fond actually is aromatic bouillon, stock or foundation for your sauces, juices or gravies. Any yummy bits that don’t dissolve can be strained out. So, don’t wash that pan out next time you sear or roast a protein—it’s like throwing out flavor.

P.S. this doesn't really work in a non-stick pan and for a fast summary of why it helps to know French cooking terms, check out:
http://www.nwcav.com/blog/index.php/2007/11/20/it-sucs-to-be-u-niligual/

Bisques are great unless you're the crab

Bisques are a traditional French soup of crushed crustaceans with cognac and wine. Although restaurants now serve bisques without these key ingredients, the traditional French approach involves searing the complete crustacean in oil to extract flavor and simmering in fish stock, cognac, white wine and herbal and vegetable aromatics. These flavors are then strained, thickened, seasoned and strained again for a velvety texture.

This all works great unless your crabs are waving at you before you start the searing technique. My crabs appeared to have expired along the one day trip from the coast to the market, but after pouring water over them to clean and remove any female egg sacs, I woke up some survivors whom I could not look in their little periscope eyes. Hypocrite that I am regarding food—I’ll eat it but don’t make me responsible for its life—I asked a workmate to trade live for dead crabs. Having already commented that she preferred life crabs, this was a fair trade—one done without involving chef. Tomorrow we fry beignets of shrimp…please let them already be in shrimp heaven.

Rabbits as dinner (pet owners please read another blog)

So, I succeeded in the rabbit “preparation”. One year of anatomy training seemed to help me chop apart an animal that I’ve
traditionally considered a pet. I kept focused on the muscles, bones and tendons and removed the head as fast as possible. I haven’t posted any “anatomy” based pictures, but I’ll email shots with requests. Here's a picture of my "Lapin a la moutarde, pommes sautees a cru" oh, and also a garnish of lapin kidneys and livers on a rosemary skewer just for an extra nibble.

Rabbit as Food
Research on rabbits for food yields a passionate response from consumers, farmers and pet owners. In many countries rabbits represent a nutritious and affordable food source, particularly for low income households. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations promotes rabbit husbandry to address undernourishment and low standards of living in many countries. Rabbit consumption is ingrained in many cultures and is a heritage and backyard food particularly in Europe. France and Italy, which has the highest consumption of rabbit meat, have a long cultural legacy of rabbit consumption.

In the U.S. rabbit meat for consumption is increasing and represented about 20% of the total market for rabbit in the USDA’s latest statistics. This is about 2 million rabbits per year compared to 3.3 million sheep/ lamb and 8.7 billion chickens to give a comparison.

Rabbit Taboos
I can’t find the original source but apparently Chef Jacque Pepin has commented that the growing popularity of rabbit in America is due to the sophistication of the American palate, but that if he skinned a rabbit on his PBS cooking show, he would go to jail or "be assassinated by some league or another." I must add that any food that increases in popularity in the US is probably aided by advertising in some fashion—it’s certainly not solely because rabbit is a nutritionally sound meat.

Rabbit pet owners and organizations opposed to how rabbits are raised for commercial consumption have a valid concern. This concern applies to many other commercial livestock practices in the US: animals in small cages with poor living and feeding conditions. For a couple of diverse views on the subject, I’m attaching three sites: Slow food USA on wild rabbits for consumption (non-industrialized approach), Epicurean’s comments rabbits as delectable foods with recipes and a site on issues associated with industrialized rabbit production. http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/american_rabbit.html
http://www.epicurean.com/articles/rabbit-almost-too-cute-to-eat.html http://www.rabbitproduction.com/Rabbits_as_Poultry.html



Bottom line...I did like the rabbit, but then again, I'm a cat lover.

Rabbit anatomy and Lapin a la Moutarde

My notes for tomorrow's cooking session start with: 1) cut head off at the base of the shoulders. As I reviewed my notes for my first rabbit dish, I consider my anatomy courses--we never covered rabbit physiology--but this step is quite clear since I can identify the head. The rest of the rabbit body annihilation involves cleaving off rib cages, loins and making sure to preserve kidneys and livers for a rosemary skewer saute garnish. Everyday eat'n back home in Arizona. Our lapin a la moutarde (mustard) dish tasted a bit like...you know chicken...from the piece I tasted which prompted me to review the nutrition content of this popular French meat.

A moderate serving of chicken breast meat (4 ounces or 113 g) has 124 calories vs 154 for rabbit. The chicken has 26 of protein--3 more than the rabbit. Your basic domestic raised rabbit though has 4.9 grams of fat versus 3.5 for chicken breast. However, in terms of saturated fats there is not much difference with chicken breast at 27% and rabbit at 30%. Dark chicken meat is actually closer physiologically to rabbit meat since rabbits tend to be lean and have alot of "fast twitch" dark meat. 113 grams of dark chicken meat has 141 calories, 23 grams of protein and 24% saturated fat.

After I practice my cleaving techniques tomorrow and cook my first whole rabbit, I'll report on how it's done, recipes and more on the culture of eating "pet" food.

Blood bath and bloody meats

This week we begin to "turn" vegetables. This tricky technique involves sliding a razor sharp knife towards your thumb (aren't you supposed to slice away from fleshy body parts?) to make 7-sided veggies. After watching the chef demonstrate this much despised and dreaded French technique, a fellow student proclaimed to the chef "it's going to be a blood bath in the kitchen".

On the topic of blood, we reviewed how the French prefer their red meats: Grade 1: still mooing, Grade 2: a faint moo; Grade 3: bright red and lastly...why would you eat meat cooked?

Seriously, there are 4 levels our chef described:

1. Bleu--basically a minute each side on a very hot grill--about 52 C/ 126 F to center


2. Saignant (translates to bleeding)--very rare, cooked just a bit longer than bleu--55-56 C / 131-133 F


3. A point ("a pwan") just a bit more cooking than saignant but still pinkish colored--62 C/ 144 F


4. Bien cuit or ‘well cooked’ which is still juicy but lacking color--65 C / 149 F


5. Last category which was not even mentioned as a grade is Très bien cuit which would probably get you the lowest quality of selected beef, afterall, supposedly you are ruining it anyway by ordering it cooked.

A French Pinch of Salt

54 hours at LCB and my primary culinary failure in the French kitchen is moderation—of salt. Apparently, I’m salt-phobic by French standards. The only dish this week passing the chef’s taste test was my Quiche Lorraine with salt-cured lardons of pork. It passed the salt taste because by day four, I was intent on using the maximum amount of salt just to avoid the “plus sel” comments from the chefs. Apparently, I don’t know what a French “pinch” of salt is.

A pinch is generally close to 1/8 teaspoon measure. Julia Childs said a pinch is the amount you can pinch up between your thumb and two fingers. Check out the pictures of a French “pinch” per my copying the Chef’s example—over ½ a teaspoon compared to my usual "pinch". So, as a nutritionist I have to ask myself, do I worry the French are a hypertensive lot with salt-aggravated cardiac/stroke tendencies and possible excessive bloating? Given that most salt consumption studies indicate that about 75% of excess salt consumption is from restaurant foods or prepackaged convenience foods, as long as most of the French public is cooking at home, they should be safe (this is another whole blog—my vision of the French public as frequent home cooks is being dashed).

Apparently, the French government and several policy organizations are concerned about salt consumption in France. In 2002, the French Food Standard Agency recommended a 20% reduction in salt consumption from 10 grams per day to 7-8 grams per day over five years. The US dietary salt consumption guidelines are 2.3 grams per day maximum with current average salt consumption estimated at 4 grams per day. OK, so perhaps this explains my taste bud sensitivity to salt with the French population at well over twice what the typical American is consuming.

Overall, as a food freak and one who wants to taste the food and not the salt, I’m more concerned about excess salt masking food flavors. Salt can enhance flavors but at some point it diminishes other flavors. Salt is an acquired taste, the opposite of sugar which infants naturally are drawn to. And with salt, the more you add, the more you get used to and prefer higher levels of salt. So, the bottom culinary line is that to pass LCB tests and the program, one must Pinch French when salt is concerned.

Cooking Intensively and a dishwashing nightmare

So much for keeping up with this blog thing. First, the allure of visiting Paris again was a distraction. Second, massive strikes that make every thing take twice as long shortened each day. Lastly, cooking school--12 hours the first day and 11 the second with a continued level of intensity through the week. I now get what the intensive Cordon Bleu program means.

A quick note before I conk out...in the 23 hours at the school, I explored veal stock, chicken stock, fish stock, cheese fondue, supreme sauces, bechemel sauces, vegetable potage, common thickeners, trussing chickens and fish fillet techniques (I'm pretty good at removing eyes fast--would someone invite me fishing so I can use this skill again?). But mostly what I've done is dirty an amazing number of dishes. For tomorrow's dish, I counted 18 different dishes/pots that will be used (plus a blow torch to remove pin feathers from the chicken I will have). This dish consists of rice, whole chicken and a supreme sauce and 30 minutes of a dishwasher's time per student. I will only make this dish again if I can have a paid dishwasher in my home.

No shoes, No entry?

Ok, I just finished reading the 11 pages of single-spaced size 7 font rules for students of Le Cordon Bleu (LCB). And, apparently, I'm joining the French version of a culinary army. Many rules include CAPITALIZED WORDS and Bold-faced highlights with threats of being marked ABSENT for many number of actions or inactions or the word NOT appearing frequently--I'd have preferred NON as the French version sounds softer and more forgiving. Now I'm wondering if my inability to obtain my required steel-toed rubber kitchen shoes (THANKs- a-bunch to the transportation strikers here in Paris) will earn me an ABSENCE. So we'll see what tomorrow brings at LCB.

Winkles--a negative calorie food

If you’re hungry in a seaport town of Normandy (St. Malo for example), don’t order winkles as your main meal. The common periwinkle is an edible sea snail of the mollusc family littorina littorea (to be geek factoid about it). With the typical size of dime when rolled up, you won’t win an eating contest unless given 2-3 days to consume a pound or so.

These Normandy varieties are harvested locally and are also found commonly in Ireland and Britain. Listed on the menu as Bigorneaux, ours came simply on a bed of ice.

Check out mon mari with his main meal of winkles, his winkle capturing and his taste test look. In addition to burning calories to eat (1 hour to consume a cup of winkles) each one is about 80% water and 15% protein—practically a negative calorie food.

If you're anxious to start cooking these diet tidbits, next time you’re near winkle territory check out http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/action=ingredientshow&id=65&lg=enaction=ingredient_show&id=65&lg=enaction=ingredient_show&id=65&lg=en.

Food Porn and Tagines

Ok, so it's been 32 hours in Paris. This equates to:

3 pastries (1200 calorie estimate--but one had a fruit serving of apples...) Please note, my food pictures do not rank as "Food Porn" as evidenced from slightly blurry shots from my point and shoot. For more info on the nature of food porn and examples see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_porn and http://www.chocolatechipped.com/

27,486 steps per my fancy digital pedometer OR 11.3 miles (didn't I mention I was a geek?)

And a couple of great meals including a tagine of chicken with figs and onions. What's a tagine? A one-pot dish that derives its name from the terra cotta pot used to cook the meal. This is a traditional dish of North Africa. In addition to lovely presentation, the tagine's clay allows for more concentrated development of spices and liquids and its enclosed environment creates a moist sauna for your meats, poultry, fish and vegetables. See this site for more information: http://www.treasuresofmorocco.com/moroccan-pottery-ceramics-tagine-c-21_89.html

Food and Cooking Inspirations

Before I start serious eating and cooking in Paris, 3 quick comments on food and cooking inspirations.

Mom, of course must top the list. While more fathers are now beginning to own the influentual role as their children's cooking mentor, the traditional "Mom as Chef" role mostly rules.

Thanks Helen R. for inspiring those around you to love the savory, sweet and comforting nature of cooking and sharing good food.

Also, Here's me and Julia C hanging out in her kitchen in our black and white print tops. You can visit Julia Child's kitchen at the American History museum--visit it at: http://americanhistory.si.edu/juliachild/

Lastly, but not least, The "Swedish Chef" must not be forgotten. How many foodies and chefs owe their success to this most venerable cooking icon? Check him out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY_Yf4zz-yo

Food, Nutrition and Cooking in Paris with a Food Geek

This blog will include comments and photos related to my Paris Food Sabbatical. I live in Paris as a culinary student at the Cordon Bleu, but I have an alias--a food and nutrition geek.

As a food geek (one fascinated with all aspects of food) and a professional nutrition geek (Registered Dietitian), I will eat my way around Paris. While eating, planning to eat and observing others eat, I will consider the following: how can one have balance eating in the motherland of boulangeries, patisseries, cheese, chocolate, butter and other caloric dense temptations.

I will also share recipes, food and eating tips and updates about what it's like to study French cuisine at the Cordon Bleu.