Chapter 6
Meat, Poultry, and
Seafood
© Copyright 2011 by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF)
and published by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Grades of Meat
Meat inspection: mandatory in the US; ensures meat is wholesome
and that the processing facilities meet food safety standards.
Grading is voluntary.
 Grading refers to the meat’s quality. The quality of meat
is based primarily on its overall flavor and tenderness.
1. Quality grade measures the flavor of meat products.
The USDA evaluates meat for traits that indicate its
tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. (prime –highest grade,
choice – middle grade, select –lowest grade)
2. Yield grade measures the proportion of edible or usable
meat after it has been trimmed of bones or fat.
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Cuts of Meat
 A chef must understand the various cuts of meat, the
physical composition of the muscle tissue, and how it is
affected by heat.
 Muscle fibers are surrounded by connective tissue. This
tissue makes the meat tougher but also more flavorful.
 2 types of connective tissue
 Collagen: breaks down during long, slow, moist-heat
cooking
 Elastin: will not break down during cooking; must be
trimmed
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Cuts of meat cont.
•The most tender cuts of meat comes from
muscles with little exercise
•After butchering, the meat must be aged
between 48 and 72 hours to allow the muscles to
relax; longer aged = darker color, better flavor,
and more expensive
•After aging, the butcher cuts the carcass into
primal cuts.
•After primal cuts, fabrication can take place.
Fabrication is the process of butchering primal
cuts into usable portions.
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Cuts of Meat (Cont.)
 Retail cuts of meat are those cuts that are ready for sale.
 Amount of butchering to prepare retail cuts affects its
price
 Restaurants can purchase retail cuts that are primal cuts,
and then fabricate them for their own use or buy
fabricated portions.
 Fabricators make cuts from the boneless loin or
tenderloin of beef, veal, lamb, or pork into a variety of
menu cuts (1st step of all is to trim away the fat)
 Medallions or noisettes: small, round pieces
 Scallops: thin, boneless cuts that are lightly pounded
 Emince’: thin strips of meat used for sautee’ing
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Cuts of meat cont.
 Offal meat is organ meat from hogs, cattle, or sheep.
Though no longer popular in the United States, offal
meat is still enjoyed in other regions of the world.
 Game meat is meat from animals that are not raised
domestically.
 Kosher meat is slaughtered to comply with Jewish
dietary laws.
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Purchasing and
Storing Meat
 Consider the following general guidelines when purchasing meat:
 Cost: Fabrication is a way to reduce meat costs.
 Fat Content: The fat content of meat products often influences
the cooking method used (meat with marbling –lines of fat
within meat cut, stay moist with both dry and moist cooking
techniques)
 Equipment: Consider the types of equipment an operation has
before deciding what types of meat products to purchase.
After purchasing and accepting it for delivery, properly store it:
 Store in coldest part of cooler
 41 degrees or lower
 Below ready to eat food
 Use FIFO
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Cooking Techniques
The chef ’s goal while cooking meat is to maximize flavor
and tenderness while minimizing the loss of moisture.
 In dry-heat methods, such as broiling, grilling, and roasting,
meats cook quickly; best for naturally tender cuts (steaks,
chops)
 Another way to prepare meat is to use dry-heat cooking
methods with fat and oil. These methods include sautéing,
stir-frying, pan-frying, and deep-frying.
 Moist-heat cooking techniques produce food that is
delicately flavored and moist with a rich broth (pot roast)
 Combination cooking methods, braising and stewing, use
both dry and moist heat to cook food that is not very tender.
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Determining Doneness

Rare: internal temperature is 130°F. The meat appears
red inside with a thin layer of brown on the outside.
 Medium: internal temperature of 145°F; meat is pink
inside with a well-browned surface; meat is firmer than
rare meat.
 Well-done: completely cooked, leaving little or no juice;
meat is firm and dry, and the internal temperature is
160°F.
 In general, as meat cooks, the exterior should develop a
deep brown color.
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Grades of Poultry
 U.S. poultry grades apply to chicken, turkey, duck, geese,
guinea, and pigeon.
 Poultry receives a Grade of A, B, or C (A being the
highest).
 Use Grade A poultry as is, meaning cook the bird and its
parts and consume them in their entirety, without
processing.
 Use Grades B and C poultry in processed products where
the poultry meat is cut up, chopped, or ground.
 The class of poultry is defined mostly by the age of the bird.
A bird’s age generally affects the tenderness, look, and
feel of the bird.
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Two Forms of Poultry:
White and Dark
 The two distinct differences in poultry forms are white meat
and dark meat. Each type of meat holds different nutrition
values.
 White meat is from the areas of the fowl where little muscle
use takes place, such as the breast:
 White meat is low in calories and fat content and cooks
faster
 Dark meat is from areas where the bird’s muscles are used
more heavily, such as the leg and thigh region:
 Dark meat is higher in calories and fat.
 Dark meat also tends to be the richer, more flavorful meat.
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Purchasing, Fabricating,
and Storing Poultry
 Guidelines for poultry purchasing include:
 Freshness: frozen poultry does not look different from a
fresh-poultry product.
 Form: The operation determines whether dark meat or
white meat is preferable and makes purchases
accordingly.
 Equipment: An operation decides what types of poultry
products to purchase and how much to purchase by
considering the types of equipment it has.
 Cost: As with meat purchases, in-house fabrication is a
way to reduce costs.
 Store fresh, raw poultry at an internal temperature of 41°F or
lower. Store frozen poultry at a temperature that keeps it
frozen.
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Cooking Techniques
for Poultry
 Poultry is suited to the dry-heat cooking techniques of
grilling, broiling, and roasting (roasting requires more time
because whole chicken is trussed – legs and wings are
tied to bird’s body)
 Also well suited to dry-heat cooking with fat (sautéing,
stir-frying, pan-frying, and deep-frying) ; require tender,
portion-size pieces.
 Moist-heat cooking: steaming is a healthy way to prepare
poultry because nutrients are not washed away
 Chicken is a natural ingredient for the combination cooking
methods of stewing and braising (mole poblano, a
popular Mexican sauce is use in Chicken Poblano)
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Seafood Inspections
and Grades
 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) monitors
interstate fish shipments and also requires fish
processors to adopt a HACCP program.
 The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) publishes
grades for seafood that has been inspected. Items are
typically graded as A, B, C, or Below Standard.
 Grade A is the highest quality
 Some Grade B items may be used by a restaurant in
certain recipes
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Forms of Seafood
 Fin fish have a backbone and can live in fresh water or in the
ocean; classified according to their shape:
 Round fish have a round body shape and one eye on each side of
the head, and they swim upright in salt water or fresh water.
(cod, mahi-mahi, tuna, trout)
 Flatfish are oval and flat in shape and have two eyes on the front part
of the head (flounder, halibut)
 Shellfish have an outer shell but no backbone and live
primarily in salt water:
 Crustaceans: outer skeleton and jointed appendages (crabs, shrimp)
 Mollusks have one or two hard shells (oysters, clams)
 Cephalopods have a single internal shell and tentacles (squid)
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Purchasing Seafood
 The guidelines for purchasing fresh seafood include:
 Market form: Vendors can supply seafood to an operation
in a number of ways.
 Storage capabilities: Fresh seafood is highly perishable;
therefore, adequate storage facilities are a must for
seafood items to ensure as long a shelf life as possible.
 The market forms of fin fish include:
 whole or round
 drawn: only viscera (guts) removed
 dressed: viscera, scales, fins, and head removed
 butterfly fillet: two sides cut away from backbone
 fish fillet: boneless pieces cut from the sides
 steak: cross section cut (larger fish usually)
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Fabricating and
Storing Seafood
 Fin fish fabrication techniques consist of scaling, trimming,
gutting, and filleting the fish. Once filleted, can be cut into:
 Goujonettes: small strips
 Paupiettes: thin, rolled fillets filled with stuffing
 Shucking is the opening or removing of a mollusk’s shell.
 Shrimp are cleaned by removing the shell and deveining
them. Deveining is the process of removing a shrimp’s
digestive tract.
 Fresh fish is very sensitive to time-temperature abuse and
can spoil quickly if it isn’t handled correctly.
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Receiving Fish, shellfish
 Fish:
 Bright red gills
 Clear, full eyes
 Should be in crushed, self-draining ice
 Shellfish:
 Shells should be closed
 ID tags must stay attached to container until all
shellfish have been used and retained for 90 days
after last item is served
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Cooking Techniques
for Seafood
 The best way to pair a fish with a cooking technique is to
consider the flesh of the fish.
 Fatty fish cut into fillets or steaks are the best cooked by
baking, broiling, and grilling.
 Lean fin fish and shellfish are best when using dry-heat
cooking with fat and oil, such as sautéing, stir-frying, panfrying, and deep-frying.
 Moist-heat cooking techniques— En papillote (cook fish in
the oven enclosed in parchment paper with herbs,
vegetables)
 Combination cooking method, stewing and braising, are used
when cooking bouillabaisse (French seafood stew)
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Determining Doneness
 Guidelines for determining seafood doneness include:
 Flesh turns from translucent to opaque: Raw flesh of most
fish is translucent. When the flesh turns a denser, more
opaque shade, the fish is done.
 Flesh becomes firm: As flesh cooks, it becomes firmer and
springs back to the touch when done.
 Flesh pulls easily away from bone: As fish cooks, flesh
loosens and can be effortlessly separated from bone when
done.
 Flesh begins to flake: As fish cooks, connective tissue
breaks down and muscle fibers begin to separate from each
other, or flake. Fish is done as soon as flaking starts to occur.
 It is better to undercook the fish slightly and allow carryover
cooking to bring it to doneness.
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Definitions of Charcuterie
and Garde Manger
 Charcuterie refers to specially
prepared pork products, including
sausage, smoked ham, bacon,
pâté, and terrine.
 Garde manger is the department
typically found in a classical
brigade system kitchen and/or the
chef who is responsible for the
preparation of cold foods, including
salads and salad dressings, cold
appetizers, charcuterie items, and
similar dishes.
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Types of Charcuterie
 Traditionally, sausages were ground pork that the preparer
forced into a casing made from the lining of animal intestines.
 Today, many ingredients are used to make sausage including
game, beef, veal, poultry, fish, shellfish, and even
vegetables.
 The three main types of sausage are:
 Fresh sausage (breakfast sausage, kielbasa, andouille)
 Smoked or cooked sausage (knackwurst, bratwurst)
 Dried or hard sausage (salami, pepperoni)
 Forcemeat is a mixture of lean ground meat and fat that is
emulsified, or forced together, in a food grinder and then
pushed through a sieve to create a very smooth paste.
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Forcement cont.
 Forcemeat is a mixture of lean ground meat and fat that
is emulsified, or forced together, in a food grinder and
then pushed through a sieve to create a very smooth
paste.
 Pate’ – rich loaf made of meat and baked in a mold
 Pate’ de campagne (country-style forcement); slightly
coarser pieces of meat)
 Pate’ en croute: forcemeat is wrapped in pate’ dough
 Mousseline: forcemeat of white meat mixed with cream
and egg whites shaped into small ovals and poached in
a rich stock to make quenelles
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