It Put's The Lotion In The Basket

I think the last week and a half in the kitchen, dealing with seafood broke me in for what was to come with Day 1 of Meat Identification And Fabrication. I should have known I was in trouble when the chef pulled this out of the walk in:He started to take the skin off of the face because underneith, there was still valuble meat left on the animal. After getting over the fact that 1. there was a pig head sitting on the counter in front of me, 2. there was a chef with a funny accent cutting it's face off, 3. there are people who actually eat, nay, consider it a delecacy to eat the jowls and jaw; I actually appreciated that this animal gave it's life for us and the least we could do was use every part we could. It was about respecting the life of the animal, and not wasting a thing. It's pretty tuff to look at, but it's important for people to see where their food comes from, and that it wasn't meant to be treated like it was on an assembly line.

There was a VERY easy recpie for a brined chicken that I would highly recomend trying. Just split the uncooked chicken from the breast, keep skin on, and soak overnight in this brine mixture:

1.5 Gallons Water

1 Onion, Halved

1/3C Salt

1T Black Peppercorns

1 Sprig Rosemary

-Heat to boil, remove, let cool, chill. Place chicken in brine and refregerate overnight.

The next day remove chicken from brine and pat dry. Give a heavy dusting of salt and pepper. Place on a racked pan and cook at 350 for aprox 30 min. It is totally worth the extra effort! And you can use the leftover meat for salads and sandwhiches later!