# Your Least Favorite Prep Task



## foodnfoto (Jan 1, 2001)

What do you think is the worst task you have to do to prep a meal? I have several that I try, like anything, to pass off onto someone else. 
Mine is cleaning fresh monk fish and squid. You wouldn't BELIEVE what I've pulled out of them!  
What are yours?


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

I'm using tons of fresh fava beans, To take them out of there bean shell,blanch and husk can be quite time consuming.

I agree on the monk fish, It has a outer membrain like no other fish. Almost like a placenta  

anyone who has filleted fresh shad would understand that it has a very unusal bone structure.

although I love any kind of fresh beet,peeling cooked standard reds without a pair of kitchen gloves can leave you "caught red handed" for quite sometime.
cc


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Gotta be peeling copious amounts of garlic..my hands get cut under the nails


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## foodnfoto (Jan 1, 2001)

What about cleaning swordfish? Has anyone here had to pull out the parasitic worms from them?
I found one 16 inches long one time.
Haven't eaten swordfish since.
As an alternative, I always learn toward Mako or Black-tippped shark for that kind of flavor and texture. No worms, either.


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Cleaning veggies, especially leeks.


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## shahar (Dec 15, 1999)

Personaly I find most of the supposdly dirty job fun - Filleting fish, peeling beans. To me it's therapy.
I do hate straining huge stocks. I smell of it for days later. Peeiling grilled peppers while still hot, ouch. Creps when you need to make 300 in half an hour - 4 pans and scorched fingers.


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## greg (Dec 8, 1999)

It's a toss-up between de-seeding pomegranates and carrot gaufrettes (ribbon-shaped, not the easy circle).


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

deseeding pomagranites???? do you do that often? Out of curiosity what do you do with them?

And I'm going to stop eating breakfast while I read cheftalk....parasitic worm talk just turned the shiitake asparagus omelet into something unappetizing.


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## greg (Dec 8, 1999)

Shroom, we used them from time to time at a country club I once worked at as garnish for a salad (sorry, don't remember the other components). Oddly enough, the chef only used them for banquet functions, so we'd have to do enough for 350-400 salads at a time. Boring, mundane work, and if your glove broke and you didn't notice, you'd have red hands for a few days.


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

I'll have to say that you people put your hearts, minds, and bodies into your jobs. What hard workers! I couldn't do these things.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

it's a toss between peeling and seeding tomatoes and peeling and slicing apples for pies and tarts, specialy when you are making more then one or two.


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## shahar (Dec 15, 1999)

Two sticks to the fire:
1. Worms? Who ever heard in here(or read or seen) about italian maggot cheese?

2: pomegrantes: I like to juice them. Then you don't need to deseed. Just cut and squeese gently in a citrus juicer(not too hard or it will become bitter). Chill and drink. Use for fowl marinades. Sorbets. etc. My favorite - 1 shot fresh pomegrante 1 shoot finlandia vodka, freeze.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Pomagranites are such a great flavor...I'm going to try the cocktail suggestion...
I use pomagranite molasses for numourus dishes...it comes in a jar.

maggot cheese, yes we delved into that gem at great length monthes ago...probably in the archives under most disgusting things people eat. They didn't remove the maggots before ingesting as I remember that was part of the mystic

I think prepping with poor equipment. I peeled 120 irregular shaped pears last year in a friend's kitchen and all they had were the metal handled peelers....not fun at all.

Or not being able to use electricity on Sat. in the synagog....IEEEE.. it amazes me how long it takes to emulsify a gl of dressing with a whisk.


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## lynne (Oct 6, 2001)

Peeling asparagus!


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## foodnfoto (Jan 1, 2001)

OMG, Shroomgirl. That sounds like a nightmare? No electricity? Didn't you have to serve 100+ people for that gig? 
You poor thing!!!


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Hey shroom..

Didn't you know that going into the event about sabbath?

If you use a wee bit of mustard as a emoulsifier and be sure to add the acid before the fat you will be pleasantly suprised at how fast and effective it works.

I used to be a poissoneer at a highly regarded restaurant in the city. We would recieve 30 fresh black bass a day when in season. I had to eviserate them and scale them..I hate to scale fish,no matter how careful and gentle you are with the back of your knife they still fly all over the place,and stick to everything. I also was never to fond of being the one to panade things..wet hand, dry hand,just a pain in the arse. 
cc


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## mofo1 (Oct 15, 2000)

Making polenta or prepping veggies for marinated salad. God, I can't believe I forgot this one: Deboning smoked salmon. Smell THAT for a week.

[ May 07, 2001: Message edited by: mofo1 ]


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

250 guests actually
Well, I understood the oven, didn't think about my emersion blender....usually I think through this shtuff but when the dressing separated I automatically wanted to reach for the emersion blender...I normally put food for Sat together on Friday, this was the first big gig I've had in a synagog...
Everything went well, I would alter very little....but the mustard is a great tip
Thanks


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## coolj (Dec 12, 2000)

Since I work in the busiest restaurant (by volume) in Kamloops, I really should have a least favorite prep task, but I don't, I just sometimes find some of the tasks very monotonous. i.e. traying bacon (about 60-75 Lbs daily). hulling potatos for skins (50 Lbs every 2 days). I used to hate friday mornings, because fridays used to be "fish friday" and I would have to cut, portion, batter and blanch in oil, anywhere from 30 to 50 lbs of halibut.


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

Cleaning a whole case of baby artichokes has got to be one of my least favorite jobs. Also going through crabmeat looking for stray shells.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

I got a bargain once on baby artichokes and my hands turned black from peeling them....what a delight to have in my freezer though.


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## matthew357 (Mar 21, 2002)

<<shiitake asparagus omelet>>

Gotta try that...I'm a huge fan of omelets. Though I have to say I prefer buttons for omelets, shiitake seem to have too strong of a flavor for me, at least in an omelet.

My least favorite prep was julianing 25 pounds of carrots by hand. Not only are your hands cramped by the end but the cutting board is a real pain to get clean again.

Matthew


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

No contest here. 950 twice baked potatoes!

Kuan


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## marmalady (Apr 19, 2001)

Peeling rock shrimp.

Cutting the eyes off those cute little soft shell crabs!


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## nancya (Apr 30, 2001)

What?!?!?

Now I can never eat soft shell crab again??!!!??!??!

Nancy


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## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

Worse prep task for me is prepping apples or pears in large quantities (parties at 100+). I ALWAY try to scam someone into helping me. When you do pastrys after awhile your hands get soft and you can't handle half the things reg. cooking requires. After 30 min. the knive feels like I have the wrong side up!

I've turned into a whimpy handed chef, yek!


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## leo r. (Nov 10, 2001)

I can think of a few mind-numbing tasks:
1) Peeling button onions.
2)Turning button mushrooms.
3)Having to quenelle fine ratatouille for a garnish.


I`m glad i don`t do these things that often,it would bore the a**e of me. Leo:chef:


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

As much as I love the sensory pleasure of feeling a knife go through an onion, I HATE the tears.


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## matthew357 (Mar 21, 2002)

I used to peel and cut 2 to 3 50# bags of onions a day and for some reason they never bothered me. Everyone else was tearing up, but I was just fine. That's probably why eventually I was the only one doing that each day.

Matt


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## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

Peeling or handling raw shrimp. After a few minutes of cleaning they make my hands break out and itch. I don't do that task anymore and haven't in a long time but every now and then I do have to handle them. Funny thing is I'm not allergic to them if I eat them. Maybe the cooking process does something. Who knows.


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## chefanna (Mar 29, 2002)

When I worked at Jardinière in SF they made me shove a wooden skewer from the tail to the "brain" while they were alive! This kept the tail really straight. (we could have just tied the tail to a carrot, and gotten the same effect)
I had tears streaming down my face and that was the moment the chef de cuisine nicknamed me "Red Lobster" . YUCK

On the topic of Pomegranates- I learned this from Jacque Pepin- Cut one in half. Hold it cut side down over a big bowl of water, then whack the back of it with a wooden spoon. All the seeds fall into the water, it is so easy.


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## svadhisthana (May 6, 2001)

I have to agree with the shrimp prep-yuck yuck double yuck. I wear gloves and it's still gross. I'm not a meat/poultry/seafood eater but DH is. Meat and poultry I can handle but seafood-look, smell(when cooking), texture, etc. is yucky.


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## chef david simpson (Sep 25, 2000)

"if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen":chef: :chef: :chef:


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Peachcreek, I enjoy the same kind of break out and itch. I also get if from kiwi. I've learned to peel the kiwi with a spoon(no waste) slice asap, this way I only touch it with fingertips. The shrimp, I just have someone else do it. Like you I enjoy eating both.


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## shimmer (Jan 26, 2001)

- Peeling shallots. Let's face it, shallots are not the most romantic smell to come home with. I tried wearing gloves and the shallots would jump across the room out of my hands.

- Pitting green olives. They start to smell like vomit after a while.

- Chopping parsley for garnish- depending on how the kitchen manager felt about me for the day determined how long, how finely chopped, and how much parsley would be chopped. 

 

~~Shimmer~~


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## chefboy2160 (Oct 13, 2001)

Cleaning and panning lobsters was one of my worst memories . I used to be a restraunt chef at a hotel casino coffee shop which sold steak and lobster for $ 6.95 a plate . We used to sell 4 to 6 hundred a night on the weekends and an average of 3 hundred a night on the weekdays . We used Main tails 5 to 6 oz each and you talk about some rough hands . I had no prep cook so the job fell to me if I wanted my line to run smoothly and yes I got realy fast at cleaning lobsters . By the way lobster is for dinner tomarrow at my house , come over if you are hungry .


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Heh Chefanna, you wouldn't like the task of fishing crabs out of the tank and killing them then 

Kuan


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Yep killing lobsters with something other than hot water.....live soft shell crabs are funky to work with, I can remember getting a jumbo softy and then reading up on how to prep it.....was wonderful to eat but I was skiddish on handling it.
Cutting hard shelled squash....spaghetti squash is a pain, or trying to peel acorn squash<gave them up for butternuts>
Getting a bad batch of fillo and having to work with broken dry leaves.....nothing like it when your teaching.
Or that one time I made kumquate marmalade.....what a nightmare....so little and sooooo many seeds.
Got it....peeling boiled crawfish they are cooked in Cayenne and there is a definate burn after a while, there are sharp shells and man oh man it takes an outrageous amount of whole to make a small pile of peeled.....Don't get me wrong crawfish boils are a blast and I can consume them all afternoon, but when the party is over and the remainders need to be peeled that's when it becomes not fun.


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## monkeymay (Feb 11, 2002)

Funny lobster story - my friend was doing Italian Christmas Eve dinner for 100 and lobster was one of the courses. He gave his sous the job of killing and cooking them for presentation at 8:30. At 7 :30 he walked in to find only a third of the lobsters prepped- it seems the sous was a Buddhist and was personally apologizing to each lobster before he killed it, thanking it for it's contribution to the meal! Being the practical and sensitive Neapolitan that he is, my friend suggested a group apology to the lobsters so that they could get the *#@%#* FOOD to the customers - Pronto!!!:bounce:


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

What a story! Guess I'm just a blood-thirsy heathen -- when I was doing my externship at a fish restaurant, one night we ran out of prepped lobsters. So the tournant and I had to rip those poor (live) buggers apart. Only problem was that we did it in front of the window from the kitchen onto the hallway to the restrooms. Dressed-up ladies were NOT amused!

BTW: a sushi chef in another place where I worked apologized to the lobsters, too. But as a group.


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## matthew357 (Mar 21, 2002)

Heh, I know a guy, that when he is cooking lobsters at home will hold them over the boiling water and say in a very formal voice, "I find you guilty....of being DELICIOUS!!" and then popping them into the water.

Matt


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## ritafajita (Mar 2, 2002)

Removing silver skin is obnoxious. 

Matthew357, do you wear contact lenses? When I have mine in, onions don't bother me. But if I am wearing glasses instead, ouch.

RF


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## matthew357 (Mar 21, 2002)

Yup, I do, maybe that's it.

Matt


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## chefanna (Mar 29, 2002)

"I find you guilty....of being DELICIOUS!!"

That made me burst out laughing ( and I was in a bad mood) 
thanks so much for that little gem of a phrase!
I don't think I will ever be the same.:bounce:


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## shimmer (Jan 26, 2001)

My eyes don't water when I wear contact and work with onions either. Now that I don't work with food all day, I usually only have a lot of time to cook on my days off. But on my days off, I wear glasses to give my eyes a break from wearing contacts!

Oh well, that's life.

~~Shimmer~~


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## plongeur (Aug 1, 2005)

I know this is from a long while ago, but - to peel garlic more easily soak it in water for 10-20 minutes beforehand. Most varieties just pop out of their skins then, although there are some with an inner skin which is a pain to get off.


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## kimbrosj (Nov 28, 2005)

well since Plongeur revived this thread, I will go ahead and post in it....

I actually love cutting large amounts of veg or fruit, relaxes me, gets me back to my roots. But I'd have to say the prep that drives me absolutely bonkers would have to be peeling, be it potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes etc, so freakin tedious and mondane....standing in that one spot for hours peeling that stuff....all I gotta say is thank god for dishwashers, ie potato peelers!!!!


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## markv (May 16, 2003)

The absolute worse thing I ever had to do was to take a box of live lobsters and tear them apart with my bare hands into their respective anatomical parts.

It was years ago and I don't remember the recipe right now but the head chef insisted on breaking them down first, and then cooking them.

It was horrible. Call me squeamish, a sissy, or whatever you like but it disturbed me to rip a living creature apart with my bare hands. I'll throw it in a pot of boiling water but to dismember it alive as it squirms and suffers was grisly and made me feel very uncomfortable.

Mark


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## harpua (May 4, 2005)

peeling apples and making mousse.


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## plongeur (Aug 1, 2005)

I enjoy most prep work, usually because it means I'm not washing dishes and pots. But I don't particularly enjoy cleaning out 'encornets' - cuttle fish or baby squid, especially the smaller ones. Chef usually wants them for stuffing so they have to be kept whole, and it's really tedious cleaning out the insides to do that. Especially when you're into a shoal that were caught while eating and their insides are full of half-digested fish.
I do like peeling spuds, though, very calming - turning them all 'à l'anglaise' so they have 7 sides is absorbing. 
Maybe I'm losing it...


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## merlot (Mar 20, 2005)

Hi, I'm new so I thought I would jump on in. I'm not a chef but my ex was training as one so I fell in love with cooking! He used to give me the task of cleaning mushrooms with a damp paper towel. I hated that! 

and I will probably never eat swordfish again.. I heard the same about grouper and haven't touched it in years....


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## even stephen (Oct 10, 2005)

Breaking down skate wing. All the mucous and the texture of the
skin is murder on your hands. A close second has to be cutting osso
bucco on an old fleetwood ban saw at 5:30 in the morning. The 
smell of burning bone and the occasional oh so scary ka!pow! of
the blade coming off. Of course there is no chance it can jump
off and get you, but still, quite disturbing after a couple of double
espresso.


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## blade55440 (Sep 9, 2005)

.....I think I'm gonna be sick.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

slicing onions paper thin for salad on a slicer.....tears running down my face with a Healthy respect for the moving blade.....


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

OMGosh,
Started tearing just reading that.
Don't you love it when the go from driping clear to opaque.


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## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

i get really bored peeling prawns.


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## jim berman (Oct 28, 1999)

Skewering/Making Brochettes. Especially when you have to make a billion of them. I particularly enjoy when the bamboo skewers go through the thin, web-like area between your thumb and index finger. Nothing like raw shrimp 'goo' getting jammed into your hand to wake you up!
A close second would have to be dicing sweet potatoes/yams. While I, too, enjoy knife work as an escape from all the chaos, nothing says "blood blister" better than a case of rock hard sweet potatoes.


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## nentony (May 7, 2005)

I'm with Andred653. My first job in a restaurant was as a busboy. I was always nagging the chef/owner to let me work prep because it looked interesting. One morning he called me really early and said if I could come in right away I could work prep. I said great and hightailed it over. He had been shrimping the night before and hit the motherlode. he had 2 big rubbermaid cans and a bunch of coolers full of shrimp. I peeled and deveined shrimp for 8 straight hours while the salad girl portioned and froze them. What a drag. Only good news was he gave me a couple pounds to take home, my folks were thrilled.

Tony


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

I am definitely with Plongeur on cleaning calamari!  Used to spend all morning doing it when I was externing. Disgusting. But at least then I got to cook it later.

Had to tear apart lobsters at the same place, but I enjoyed that. No thought to whether or not they "felt" anything. In fact, I especially like doing it in front of the kitchen window that opened onto the hallway leading to the restrooms: give those customers an idea of what went into their fancy food.  

Now that I only cook at home, I hate hate hate cleaning lettuces for salads. Fortunately, my husband -- who eats huge amounts of salad at every dinner -- enjoys it. So it all works out well.


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## merlot (Mar 20, 2005)

I agree with the cleaning of lettuce. I need a good salad spinner because I always lay mine out on paper towels to dry...


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## blade55440 (Sep 9, 2005)

It may seem stupid...but for an event recently we had to shuck, shave, and milk about 6 cases of fresh corn.

From then on I officially hate prepping corn.


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## dean (Mar 8, 2005)

Cleaning wild duck Oh the feathers and the smell of scraping the insides out yuk!


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