Day 61

Today was a big prep day for tomorrow's production. We had to poach our sweetbreads so that they were ready for pan-frying tomorrow. Sweetbreads are basically just the thymus glands and/or pancreas of young calves, lambs, and piglets. After a debate in class today I am pretty sure that they are called sweetbreads only because it would be gross to print "thymus gland" on a menu. In raw form, the glands look sort of like brains. 

After they are poached in seasoned water for 10-12 minutes (which rids the gland of excess blood) you have to remove the outer membrane and then they look like this....

I promise the final product will look more appetizing tomorrow :)

We also butchered rabbits that we are going to stew tomorrow. Rabbit meat is lean but there is a lot of connective tissue so it really benefits from the stewing process which breaks down the tissue and creates really tender meat as a result. 

Lastly I made some egg pasta dough that I will use to make pappardelle noodles to pair with the rabbit stew tomorrow.  The word "pappardelle" derives from the verb "pappare" which means "to gobble up".

Just as we were finishing our prep for the day we were graced with a gorgeous sunrise....