Now for a riddle: How many marines does it take to turn out 5 dishes in 2.5 hours? Answer: more than 2. Today, our team is shorted, somebody is sick. So here we go, trying to make up for the absence of that person. I am a bit worried as my cohort is one of the people who came to the CIA with minimal experience in anything but “chow” cooking. He has come a very long way, but it is not natural yet, so there is a lot a reading of instructions and tentative movement. Still, we do fine-it is a light day for production-there is a lot of chef/instructor demo. We watch a demo on Gravlax (cured salmon), which is surprisingly easy. Just an oil mixture, then a salt-based dry cure packed onto a piece of salmon, weighted and refrigerated for a few days. Good sanitation here is especially important, since the fish will sit for several days during the curing process. I already know how to make bagels-now I can also do the lox-sweet!
At the other end of the religious scale, we brine a ham. This is done like giving an enema, with a probe and pump, injecting a saline solution into a fresh ham. Watching the ham blow up to twice its size is kind of amazing. Commercially, this is what it means when you see ham slice in a package at the supermarket that states “water added”. Financially, this is good for the producer-water makes it weigh heavier and therefore cost more per pound. Our ham will be smoked in the outdoor smoker. In winter. In the middle of a snow storm. Anything for the food!
The last thing we watch is corned beef preparation. Both the ham and the corned beef uses something called “Instacure”, a pink salt substance that gives ham it’s color and which contains nitrate, an agent that protects against botulism. The corned beef is also quite easy-it just takes care and time to cure. We will use all this in various breakfast preparations this week, so a good part of today is a prep day for the rest of the week.
