What's your most TEDIOUS prep?

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At my morning job, denuding and thinly slicing 1" squares of sirloin then 2 oz portioning them in sandwich baggies. At my night job, trimming a case of artichokes and cooking them...every day.
 
Squid...ink squirting...dirty sink all black and icky, but so tasty.
 
CutFingers said:
Squid...ink squirting...dirty sink all black and icky, but so tasty.
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Re: squid, please see my most above. I didn't have ink issues, though.

My squid days were 10 years ago. But I remember something else: squid hands. Even on days off, the hands still seemed to smell of squid.

Squid, squid, squid.
 
Red cabbage. Mussels.

At the same time I thought I would liven it up. I ADORE prepping artichokes.
 
Peeling softboiled eggs, butchering lamb ribs, picking crab and lobster. Those are not enjoyable prep at all.
 
I had to nitrogen freeze english pea puree into half domes to be put back together like a pea. they had to be hollow so you would fill up a tea spoon with puree, just submerge the metal in nitro so the outside has frozen, scoop the unfrozen out and then pop them out of the the tea spoon with a little warm water. took 3 hours the first day with one tea spoon on top of my other very large prep list, so that weekend I bent, super glued and taped 4 together and cut it down to an hour.
 
Trimming collard stems is pretty annoying, but then again I have a fish box of them next to me right now that I am allowing myself to be distracted from with the internet.
 
This is all really cool insight into your kitchens, thanks all!
 
Small handmade pasta. Orrechiette, strozzapreti, garganelli. Always take me way longer than they should.
 
Shaving a 600 pan of brussels sprouts on my mandoline is at the top of the list currently. 1+ of that for weekends.
 
lanel said:
Shaving a 600 pan of brussels sprouts on my mandoline is at the top of the list currently. 1+ of that for weekends.
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The Hobart slicer is broke for real this time? I remember they pulled that on us last year. We would have three people on it. Then the little ladies from across the street would come shred cheese and thank Christ. Saved us the rest of brussels salad season. The company definitely has one floating around...
 
Ha! I figured this was you Joe. And for sure, the blade isnt small enough for Cosmos liking so by hand they get done. I saw you checking out that buttermilk supply, we should set up a time and go check it out.
 
It's Spring in Australia...

...which means broad beans are in season. So delicious. So, so fiddly. Fortunately, I have child labour to help.
 
^^^^oh yea I forgot about that, I hate taking the skins off broad beans, as well as getting FRESH English peas out of their pod
 
Back in the old days at the Russian Tea Room (before any renovations), there used to be 2 'vintage' women whose job it was to peel garlic & shallots, and tourne vegetables. They were there what seemed like all day working at a small table with a dangling light bulb in the dungeon; the scary cave-like basement where monsters lived. The most wretched prep job that I've seen. At that time, my job included peeling tons of shrimp and julienning leeks and celery root. No slicer, no mandolin...10" Wusty. That kinda sucked too.
 
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Speaking of tedious prep, here's one from my dinner last night. Brussels sprouts, both red and green.

From the time I picked them in my garden to when they were cleaned and ready for use, ~35 minutes....

cb353400b00f3705b153.png
 
35 mins well spent. Looks good. Sprouts from your own garden, a Kato and I'd put on a podcast, listen, prep, and enjoy myself
 
That's exactly what I did. Discovered a new podcast called No F*ckin' Ziti. A solid hour of Sopranos nerd talk is music to my ears. But man, do I get tired of removing layers and getting the hard root pushed up under my thumbnail.
 
I've found it--removing the tendons form turkey legs. That takes the cake. Almost, gave up five times. You basically have to very carefully shred the interior of the leg, slowly cutting back and fourth. I think there were about ten or more in each leg. I'm going to confit them, What a PIA. If you can avoid this task, do.
 
Mucho Bocho said:
I've found it--removing the tendons form turkey legs. That takes the cake. Almost, gave up five times. You basically have to very carefully shred the interior of the leg, slowly cutting back and fourth. I think there were about ten or more in each leg. I'm going to confit them, What a PIA. If you can avoid this task, do.
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A Tip i could give for this would be using vice clamps and a butter knife. It isn't an elegant solution but its a little quicker than anything else I've tried.
 
Mucho Bocho said:
I've found it--removing the tendons form turkey legs. That takes the cake. Almost, gave up five times. You basically have to very carefully shred the interior of the leg, slowly cutting back and fourth. I think there were about ten or more in each leg. I'm going to confit them, What a PIA. If you can avoid this task, do.
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Huh? I confit the whole leg and then meat shreds off easily. Yesterday I tasked a Nephew with the job - this bowl meat, this bowl skin and bones. If this is wrong, I'm not sure I want to be right...
 
I remember doing some bouquets of herbs as a garnish to some foie gras au torchon.

1. Wash all the herbs

2. Take all the best looking tops of chervil, dill, tarragon and flat parsley and segregate them on a sheet pan lined with paper towels. Store in walk in

3. Pick all the leaves of the remaining herbs to use for salad des herbs

4. Blanche some spring onion to use as twine to tie everything up together

5. Painstakingly arrange each bouquet (flat parsley>chervil>dill>tarragon)

6. Tie it up with some very delicate blanched spring onion

7. Trim off any excess leaves and stems

We go through more than 200 of these a week.
 
DamageInc said:
Speaking of tedious prep, here's one from my dinner last night. Brussels sprouts, both red and green.

From the time I picked them in my garden to when they were cleaned and ready for use, ~35 minutes....

cb353400b00f3705b153.png
Click to expand...

Hated brussel sprouts growing up. Now I love them. Turns out my Mom was a lousy cook - like most of America in the 70's:laugh:
 
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