Although we enjoyed a long weekend and a short school week, the past few days have been a completely seamless continuation of the week before. Besides those few days of much-needed sleep, it almost feels like the weekend didn’t even happen because we haven’t skipped a beat when it comes to school.

Three weeks in, and we’ve completed our meat ID & fabrication class! While I had to pause a few times, I ultimately feel I’ve developed a more profound respect and understanding of meat consumption and techniques. We spoke about meat from all perspectives, from maximizing your yield while fabricating to finding out the exact farm you’re buying from, even when shopping from a mass-producing company.

Our chef was not only a master butcher but a talented cook who gave us fantastic spice mixture ideas to use. A few times this week, he even rounded up some of our practice cuts and prepared them on his rugged hot plate set up, which he keeps on a counter outside the meat room. When we made sausage, he turned our seasoned and ground meat into a burger, using another pan as a cover because that’s his style. When we practiced duck, he took our duck wings and seasoned them with red pepper flakes, paprika, fennel seed, black peppercorns, and probably something more that he just threw together in the bowl faster than we could catch. The picture I featured in the newsletter was a perfectly cooked pork breakfast steak he made from his demo cut of pork chops from the pork loin. He serves us after we’ve finished cleaning the kitchen spotless and we stand there, not talking and only nodding to each other in agreement about how good it is. I will be testing and sharing some recipes for the meat that’s available from Norman’s to share with you all soon, so keep an eye out!