Meat Cutting: Post-Thanksgiving

Work and weather went well this past week. It was cold, but we didn't get the blizzard they were forecasting at the beginning of the week. Just a few inches of snow.

I had a breakthrough at work on Tueday. For the 1st 4 weeks of training, I was using a dull knife! There was a reason I was getting very frustrated not only by the pain in my hands, but at the slow pace of my work. I was not getting any faster. Jeff, my boss, was watching me use my steel, and realized that I was using it all wrong. I was actually rounding my blade by sliding my knife on my steel at a crazy angle. I was "honing" the knife at over a 45 degree angle, when I needed to be at the 22.5 degrees shown on the diagram below: After I sharpened my knife, and started using my steel correctly, my job got a lot easier, obviously. It was like my knife was moving through butter. Because of this breakthrough, we were able to finish 5 whole beefs on Wed., Thur. and Friday. It made an instant difference on my speed of work and on the pain in my hands. I am still a little apprehensive when using the track system to move beef around above me, but I am getting more confident by the day. The thought of a 300 lb. half of beef falling on me is not pleasant.

I got a couple of treats from people at work this week: brown, white and green eggs and fuji apples.

The eggs are from a friend of my co-worker Joanne. Her friend raises chickens in Elgin, OR. The green eggs are from a breed of chicken called Americauna, sometimes called the Easter Egg chicken. Not only was the color of the eggs different, but the color of the yolk and the flavor were both much more intense than regular grocery store eggs. I will be requesting more.

The apples are from just across the border with Washington. Very tasty.