These are not the droids you're looking for

Today I got a new jacket and toque of my own. Mario, the owner of the butcher shop, has been busy fixing things up around the place. "It's plumbing not rocket science," he said in a spare moment that we shared.

I made sausage today and finished the head cheese. I took a picture but I won't put it up till it is unmolded and finished. The sausage press (affectionately called the R2 unit) is a hydraulic cylinder. It forces the forcemeat (sausage mixture) through a tube and into the casing. For something so simple there is a lot that can go wrong (i.e. not tightening the top down correctly - if you ever have a chance to use one of these don't make this mistake, big mess). You also can control the speed of the forcemeat coming out and the density going in the casing - that’s tricky.

Saw Rocco today, always a treat. He is using a pear stilton sausage for a cassulet, adding a lamb chop and some duck confit. Yum. I love winter just for meals like that.

Also caught wind that a high profile Toronto chef may be joining the butcher ranks soon. John says "the butcher is a refuge for wayward chefs." I had to agree.

This is a pic of Dave showing Renee (a cook at OB) how we work with pork. It goes to show you that this is a lost art, and that people are interested in learning it. Cooks should be embarassed that they can't say for sure where a sirloin tip is from or how many cows it takes to get you though the weekend of ribeyes.

This is were I was going with that Tshirt reference a couple of days ago. Can you dig it? Can you count? Love that trippy beat. Gil Scott Heron. Thanks to Maloy for pointing the way.