What's your most TEDIOUS prep?

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Never heard of red brussels before...I now have a mission...

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....

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DamageInc said:
Pretty similar to the green, really. A tad sweeter and a tad nuttier.
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Sounds like they'd add some depth of flavor, and of course color, to a dish....I must seek them out now.
 
tis offtopic but brussels sprouts coleslaw is an awesome recipe to try. :)
 
Scoring, blanching then peeling heirloom cherry tomatoes
 
my sous chef took my to a food competition when I was 15. He had me peel baby carrots with the spine of a butter knife. He wanted all the "textures" to remain. Then he burned the pan. I did them again....

Reading everything you guys go through reminds me of an easy task that I dreaded even in my sleep. My second job was as an oyster shucker and every day we had to hand cut 4 bushels of limes and lemons. Those cuts on my hands burned like fire. Not very tedious but still hell. I was only 14 and my first job was dish dog. Serious step up to be a shucker. Such fun.
 
Ran a special with some handsome local Favas, forgot how much those things are
pain in my ass.
 
I've got a new one, picking the seeds out of meyer lemons. Every year when they come in season, I buy a few dozen to make into meyer lemon confit. Requires slicing the lemons and removing the annoying/bitter seeds. I'll slice them in half, dig out what seeds I can find, then slice the lemons and layer in jars with a mix of 50/50 kosher salt/sugar. It took over two hours to wash, deseed, slice and layer them in Jars. Good thing I only have to do this chore once a year. Their worth it though.
 
Cleaning 4kg of chicken skin for twills most tedious thing ever, and making 40kg of cured lemon paste with tiny lemons.
 
Making steamed buns. 3 different doughs form the main dough. 37 gram portioning balling up, rolling out, paint with sesame oil, crease with chopstick, fold. I have to make 48 5 days a week.
 
jklip13 said:
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.
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a hemostatic clamp works better better but a long time with them in your fingers can get crampy.
 
Jordanp said:
Freakin shelling faba beans!
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This definitely, my chef requires that we double shuck before blanching, blegh

Also cleaning morels, usually about thirty rinses later they are ready to butter-braise
 
Got a new one: picking cilantro. Separating every leaf when its bushy and undergrown. 8-10 large bunches yields 4qts.

And pretty much anything with low yields, shuck a case of peas, 4qts, fuuuuuck that.
 
Jaspernowhere said:
Making steamed buns. 3 different doughs form the main dough. 37 gram portioning balling up, rolling out, paint with sesame oil, crease with chopstick, fold. I have to make 48 5 days a week.
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I take it that is why Serious Eats just recommends one to go and buy the pre-paid ones from an Asian groccer
 
A lot of these jobs make me question what a chef is trying to achieve... brunoise of pine nuts?! Nitro freezing pea puree in a tea spoon?!!
Fergus Henderson said it best, "If God wanted carrots to be square, they'd be square". What's more beautiful than a pine nut, or a sweet little gem of a pea?
Madness...
Shelling peas, beans and seafood is tedious but serves a purpose. Torturing food into an unnatural state is the worst kind of tedious as it's pointless
 
jbl said:
A lot of these jobs make me question what a chef is trying to achieve... brunoise of pine nuts?! Nitro freezing pea puree in a tea spoon?!!
Fergus Henderson said it best, "If God wanted carrots to be square, they'd be square". What's more beautiful than a pine nut, or a sweet little gem of a pea?
Madness...
Shelling peas, beans and seafood is tedious but serves a purpose. Torturing food into an unnatural state is the worst kind of tedious as it's pointless
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I absolutely agree with this sentiment however I think there is a time and a place for obsessive knifework. Say you had a duxelle stuffing, inside of a hollowed out eggplant, the mushrooms and shallots won't fit in whole, so they have to be cut. You now have the choice of mincing them into a mash or cutting them brunoise and gently folding them together.
I agree that too often a chiffonade of parsley or a brunoise of tomato is added just to show off how good you are but I don't think we should discount the idea itself of the cuts.
 
jbl said:
Shelling peas, beans and seafood is tedious but serves a purpose. Torturing food into an unnatural state is the worst kind of tedious as it's pointless
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I disagree.

Exhibit 1: French Fries

I could go on, but mmm, french fries.
 
jbl said:
A lot of these jobs make me question what a chef is trying to achieve... brunoise of pine nuts?! Nitro freezing pea puree in a tea spoon?!!
Fergus Henderson said it best, "If God wanted carrots to be square, they'd be square". What's more beautiful than a pine nut, or a sweet little gem of a pea?
Madness...
Shelling peas, beans and seafood is tedious but serves a purpose. Torturing food into an unnatural state is the worst kind of tedious as it's pointless
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By that rationale, I suppose any creative endeavor that isn't solely based on survival is completely pointless, yes?
 
I'm just railing against some of the jobs mentioned in previous posts.
Hack attempts at dated ideas like spherification, or needless chefiness making pinenuts square.
Of course French fries et al don't come in for those criticisms... jeez
 
I see my job as turning phenomenal ingredients into something edible for paying customers.
So, I shuck peas and beans, but there's some serious compensating going on if those peas need to be turned into spheres.
I work in a two star restaurant, and have only worked in restaurants, where the ingredient is king.
The hoop jumping some chefs do to claw themselves into some kind of ranking or awards systems is crazy.
Work alongside a Lebanese chef making mezze or an Italian grandmother and suddenly those brunoised pinenuts seem a little ridiculous no?
I'm just playing devil's advocate really, but cheffy food really is about erotic as a blow up doll
 
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