# Hello, other day at school!



## gus20 (Jul 26, 2002)

Hello, how are u, its me Gustavo. I hope u are ok. I had some questions at school, i couldnt undertsand veyr well, even my instructor didnt undertsand it. I wanted to know this, we were using the technique"to braise" i hope thats the right translation in spanish is brasear in frecnh braisier. WEll we were doing lamb with this technique, well my questions is this. How much tiem should i cook the meat in the oven? cuz the desmotration made by te director of the school was for 1 and half hour and it was still strong, difficult to eat. In classes with my instructor we did the same, and the lamb about one hour was very strong, hard to it, one group just cooked the lamb about 30 minutes probably, the meat was colour pink but soft and my instructor said thats the right way to cook it in short time, or it will be soo hard. Now we told her the director told us about 2 hours,and she said nope, she got angry, and of course she got angry like saying why dont u believe me; well while they were discussing i got out from my classroom and i search the director to explain me, he tryed to do it but i couldnt understand very well. Whta happen with meats? What should be the right temperature? if the temperature oven is so high the meat becomes more strong? cuz we receive rules like the lamb u have to cook till 70 celsius gardes or 165 farenheit, if its hotter the meat is stronger? or this temperature is cuz sanitation.One chef told me, the meat first is soft when its still pink, after its hard strong difficult to eat, and after it becomes soft again, is that the right way? i think the same happen with the duck.
I ask this cuz in my culture we eat the lamb very very veyr well cooked, maybe 1 hour or more till its soft, and the duck the same, we never eat those meats in colour pink or with a little of blood inside, Maybe the 0.05% of peruvians ( we are like 26 millions of people) who eats in France, Italy and often travel to Europe. How much time should i cut the meats? what happen with cow meat in the oven, the duck? the lamb?.
I can tell u something more, last semester we did cous cous, with lamb in barbecue, the belgic chef told us, just cook the lamb it 3 minutes and it was completely bloody, and we said what? will we cook it in that way? He said cuz the lamb is eaten bloody in all the world or it will be strong, i told him, excuse me chef but here in Perú our traditional dishes are cooked the lamb very well , till its very very soft, maybe about 1 hour or more, till its very soft, I remember he said its cuz in Perú u dont know how to eat. All the class felt insulted, so the chef had to say im sorry.
When we studied the techniques to cook vegetables, we studied the sweat of vegetables, "sudado" it means put the vegetables in oil till the vegtable is softer, it doesnt change of colour and the temperature is not so high, thats sweating a vegetable. I was confused, cuz in allllllll peruvian food u dont just sweat the onions , it needs to get a dark colour, sweat colour and i asked, why kind of technique would be that? the chef didnt answer me. This semester we study peruvian food and of course we sweat the onions till they get a soft brown colour, im not saying bunrned, what technique is it? "to fry" "sweat witha dark colour", i asked about that to the director he told me, peruvain fooood dont have techniques. BUt i wonder why should i accept techniques from France, i know its the only way to get an universal recipe. BUt we have techniques to cook since 3000 b.c and why all those techniques hava to be called like the french techniques? cuz in a tomatoe sauce at school we just sweat the onions and garlic, here the momies at home sweat it with colour . i always cooked it in thatsince i was 7 years old, now im 21.

I think im being very very bored maybe,but those are just questions i have. The school changed me the way to cook, now i use the olive oil, here we dont use it, not much people, and we dont cook with butter, with vegetable oil or margarine , never butter. I remember my first semester i felt i had to change all my way to cook peruvian food and now my mind is opened, i have many things to tell u about our customs to eat here. but it would be very long maybe in my next email cuz maybe u are sleeping now. Thanks for reading this, really thanks, i ppreciate if u just read this.

See uu, hugs and kind regards

Gustavo
sp: could u tell me what book about techniques for cooking should i buy? a relative is sending the professional chef from cia cuz i cant get it here, some people in spain told me about the chef Pepin´s book, but i dont know what would teach me,or what would be the best thank u. :chef:


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## dcifan2k (Sep 25, 2001)

the only advice I can give to you is what I know. the way to braise is to first sear the meat in a pan and then put it into a pan and cover with liquid about 1/2-2/3 covered in liquid put foil on top and put it in the oven now as far as time goes it depends on the size of meat and the type your book should have a guid as to how many minute I would say the the group that had only put it in for a half an hour was probably the best because you want the meat to be a little pink on the inside and it is all about preference of rare, medium rare, medium, medium well or well done the temp for medium rare is i believe 135 and then give it 10 minutes to rest for carry over cooking. I hope this has helped

sincerely
Michael


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## gus20 (Jul 26, 2002)

Thanks so much for ur advice, thank u!!!!!!

thanks from Perú


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