Prepreparation Part 7

Machine cutting

Certain types of cutting are often best done by machine, especially if large quantities are needed. Machines are monsters and should be treated with suitable respect and dread. An accident with a machine is always serious. Before you attempt to use any machine you must attend a demonstration and lecture on its use, study the manufacturer's instructions thoroughly and use the machine only under supervision until your instructor or supervisor is satisfied that you know what you are doing.

For slicing, the food slicer is superior to hand cutting in many instances. It is used most frequently for slicing meats, cheese, and vegetables in quantity. It gives you slices of uniform thickness and is therefore very useful in producing a standardized portion. You can set the machine to produce the thickness of slice you want.

The food chopper usually called the buffalo chopper, uses revolving knives to cut things up. The degree of fineness is determined by the number of times the ingredients go under the knife blades.

Another type of chopper, the vertical cutter/mixer, or VCM uses whirling knives in an enclosed bowl. It is supering high-speed. It can cut up your salad greens in 5 seconds and will reduce them to soup if you run it a few seconds too long. As the name implies, this machine can also be used as a mixer for such things as dough and mayonnaise.

Choppers can process such items as meats, nuts, vegetables, and bread crumbs with great speed. Manufacturer's instructions must be followed, and hands and hand tools must be kept away from whirling knives. They make no distinction between an onion and a human hand.

The grinder is used most often for meats, seafood, and poultry. The food is put into a hopper and pushed into a revolving screw that forces it through one or more cutting plates. The size of the pieces is determined by the size of the holes in the plates.

PROCESSING

Processing includes all the things done to get foods ready for cooking and serving. In some kitchens more time and labor may be spent in processing than in the cooking itself.

Cleaning and cutting, of course, are major processing activities. In addition many specific processes and techniques figure in the prepreparation of many different kinds of foods.

Putting things together

Let us look first at some processing terms and techniques that have to do with putting ingredients together.

Mix is to combine ingredients in such a way that the parts of each ingredient are evenly dispersed in the total product.

Blend is to mix two or more ingredients so completely that they lose their separate identities.

Bind is to cause a mixture of two or more ingredients to cohere as a homogeneous product, usually by adding a binding agent.

Beat is to move an implement back and forth to blend ingredients together or to achieve a smooth texture.

Whip is to beat with a rapid lifting motion to incorporate air into a food.

Fold is to mix a whipped ingredient lightly with another ingredient or mixture by gently turning one over and over the other with a flat implement.

Mizer, Porter, Sonnier, Food Preparation for the Professional, 1978, Page 51

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic