Solo [✨ Job Thread] A Cut Above The Rest

[Alekxandra Winterflame]

10th Day, Summer, 516 A.V.
Luminary Commons

Approx. Word Count - 3362

Practice made perfect. The words tended to be common knowledge, but that didn’t mean practice was never tedious. In general when it came to work Alekxandra hated to do the same thing over and over. Learning something new always beat out having to repeat something countless times to perfect it. But Alek also knew she’d never get better if she didn’t practice–tedious or not she really needed to practice. Especially if it got her out from under Nevar Winterflame’s nose.

He was a wonderful boss most days. He was in charge for a reason, and Alek considered herself deeply lucky that she got to work at the Commons given she was still very fresh in terms of being a cook. But then there were other days when nothing seemed to be going right. Things just didn’t come out right, or a large section of meat burnt beyond use because of someone’s mistake. Those days meant Nevar had a much shorter fuse than others and it was always better to be in the back prepping instead of out front taking and making orders.

Today was one of those days.

Alekxandra counted herself lucky to be behind the scenes as she could hear Nevar’s voice out in the front. She couldn’t make out the words, but it certainly sounded as if someone had burnt something–again.

”He’s on a roll today. I think someone might get fired at this rate.” A woman whispered to her left. Settling in next to her was a woman Alek was fairly familiar with but had never worked with directly. Eriolta was a young woman, perhaps a few years older than her brother. She was known to be Nevar’s right hand… well woman in the background. She supervised most of the workings in the background to ensure Nevar wasn’t spread too thin amongst the commons.

Alek glanced at the doorway that would lead out to the main seating section of the commons with a groan. Eriolta let out a laugh, nudging Alek gently with her elbow before shoving something in front of her that she hadn’t noticed Eriolta had brought with her before. A long section of meat, complete with fat still attached. Frowning slightly, she glanced at the woman from the corner of her eye.

”We are going to be prepping tonight's meat,” Eriolta patted her own section of meat nearly identical to the one now gracing Alek’s section of table. ”Elk steaks made from one of the most tender sections.”

Alek couldn’t help but bite her lip. She had never prepared meat before like this. As if she was reading minds, Eriolta nudged her again with a smile.

”Don’t worry. I’ll show you and then you’ll get to practice the rest of the night.” Drawing in a deep breath, Alek barely contained another groan that caught in her throat. An all night shift of preparing meat. She watched as Eritolta snatched two boning knives from across the table before sliding one of them over to her.

”Just follow my lead and you’ll be fine.”

[Alekxandra Winterflame]

Carefully Alek lifted the thin boning knife from the table and examined it carefully. Knives were kept constantly sharp to keep production smooth, and this one was no different. But the blades were always kind of a fascination to her, the different kind of styles for this and that. Eriolta cleared her throat and Alek realized the woman was waiting somewhat impatiently for her own attention. Fixing her eyes on Eriolta’s own slice of meat, Alek watched as the woman tapped a section of meat along the length and outside of the loin.

”This part of meat is barely held on by the fat. We’ll trim this off and we can cut it up later for another use.” With practiced ease, the woman slid her boning knife through the fat and easily separated the two parts of beef. With this smaller section removed, Alek could see a good portion of fat was marbled into the meat. Eriolta simply tossed the small section further up on the table before motioning to Alek that she should mirror her movement on her own piece of meat.

Tilting her head, Alek ran her fingers along both long ends of the loin. Eriolta was correct that it was actually fairly easy to see this section of meat that was ready to be separated. Taking her knife, she made one long smooth slice down the fat with her left hand, while carefully keeping the meat steady with her right. The fat was simple to slice through as it gave no real resistance, save for a more meaty section towards the top. Alek had to use a slight more bit of force to make the meat pull apart, but all in all it was a fairly easy to separate the two. Taking the thinner slice of beef, she tossed it up above her workspace and out of her way before looking to Eriolta. The woman was grinning almost mockingly at her.

”Don’t look so relieved. This was probably the easiest part. Just wait until we reach the silver skin.”

Alek barely contained grumbling under her breath. Of course it wouldn’t be so easy to just remove sections of meat to serve. There was always an underlying approach to things, and usually it was harder than what more experienced cooks and preps made it look. Patting her on the back, Eriolta moved back to the meat and tapped the dull end of her blade on a large store of fat that ran along the loin.

”Removing the fat isn’t terribly hard, it’s just different for every piece of meat. For a beginner like you, it will take many more strokes of your knife until you get the handle of how thick the fat is and where the meat and fat meet. But luckily it won’t hurt the meat to cut more. Just be careful on not cutting too deep or you’ll remove too much meat with the fat and that is something you can’t get back.”

[Alekxandra Winterflame]

Flipping the meat around, Eriolta took her fingers along the thicker end of the loin and carefully cut off another slice of meat that seemed to be hanging on by simple fat, only this section was even smaller and thicker compared to the thin and longer slice of meat previously removed.

”Another easily removed piece of meat. It’s good to keep whole and we can cook it out simply like this for another meal as well. There is another piece like this on the other side here, but we’ll remove it later after we remove the silver skin.” Placing the meat next to the long strip above her workstation, Eriolta carefully slipped her knife into the meat just below a section of fat. Using her knife she sawed gently through the meat until the end of the fat came free. Grasping it with her free hand she used it to keep the dangling fat almost pulled tight and Alek watched as the knife slipped almost gracefully along the fat, separating it from the meat almost in a perfectly clean stroke. The fat came free with almost no effort, and Eriolta tossed it to the side and repeated the process on another section of fat. She moved so efficiently and cleanly that Alek was sure she was going to massacre her own loin.

But the only way to know that for sure was to try. Gripping a thick piece of fat, she found that sections of the fat almost lifted from itself. It was slimy and the heat of her hand seemed to make the oily factor to the meat even worse. It was harder to hold onto than she anticipated. Letting the fingers of her right hand tighten even further on the flap of fat that lifted from the base of it, she carefully tried to poke her knife through the meat before the strip of fat.

”Don’t be afraid to use pressure. As I said it’s easier to clean up the meat of fat than it is to remove more meat just to free the fat. It’s a waste.” The meat resisted until Alekxandra realized she wasn’t using the point of the boning knife like she should. Lining the tip of the knife up to the meat in a more proper angle, she pressed with far more pressure than she probably needed. The knife gutted into the meat deeper than she intended, and she could see the waste of meat attached to the fat like Eriolta warned. Wincing she glanced up at the woman carefully, trying to wager just how upset the woman might be.

”Oh don’t look so stricken. It is your first time doing this. It takes lots of practice to master this, just don’t let it go entirely to waste. Angle your knife along the meat and cut slightly upwards until you reach the fat. We’ll lose a little meat, but eventually you’ll even back out.” Eriolta smiled, playfully nudging her shoulder to Alek’s before motioning that she should continue. Looking back down, Alek did as she was told, angling the knife up towards the meat. Eriolta reached over, and took the back of Alek’s hand in hers.

”Too sharp of an angle. Remember this is a smooth transition. We don’t need it to be perfect but it should come free in a single movement.” Alek let Eriolta correct her angle, before the woman removed her hand and motioned for her to continue.

[Alekxandra Winterflame]

Working slowly, Alek slid the knife at the slightest upward angle through the meat in a saw like motion, letting the knife do the work for her rather than force it through the grains of the meat. The slice of fat eventually removed fairly cleanly–save for the start where she had cut too deeply. Eriolta nodded her approval before motioning to clean the rest of the fat from the meat.

It seemed almost tedious, trying to cut the fat free from the meat. Alek could see how the fat marbled down into the meat, so all she could remove were the larger blobs of fat clinging to the outside of the loin. Gripping yet another large strip of fat, she took great care this time about letting the knife plunge too deeply into the meat. This caution however caused her to cut not deep enough. As she let her knife slice through the fat she realized she was leaving more pieces off fat still clinging to the loin.

”Don’t worry dear. It’s easier to remove the smaller pieces anyway.” Reaching over to Alek’s loin, Eriolta used her own knife to slice a stubborn small section of fat away.

”Besides we don’t want to remove all of the fat, just most of it. The fat helps with flavor.” As Alek continued to remove smaller bits of fat, she noticed something else along the meat. It wasn’t fat, though it looked similar. It was shiny and it clung to the meat stubbornly unlike the fat. As if she noticed her gaze, Eriolta chuckled.

”That is our first real challenge. Remember how I mentioned the silver skin?” Alek couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose. Unlike the fat that seemed to have gangly strands to it to help hold onto, this ‘silver skin’ as Eriolta had called it had none. Giving it a gentle poke with her knife tip she realized that it was tougher than both the meat and the fat as well. Getting this section off was already looking to be a difficult task.

”First things first, we need to make sure all of this silver skin is exposed. Yours seems fairly exposed, but sometimes you need to ensure that it is. Mine is hiding under a little bit of the meat. If you come across this, just simply use your knife to carefully separate the meat from the skin, but don’t cut the meat off entirely. We just want it exposed.” Using her knife, she made several small slits between the meat and the silver skin, carefully peeling the meat back until she could reach the entirety of the skin.

[Alekxandra Winterflame]

”Now you know how the grain of the meat works yes?” Alek nodded in confirmation. It was one of the first things one learned about meat. The way the ‘grain’ of the meat moved. It was imperative if one wanted tender meat to cut against the meat or it would become tough.

”Good. So much like the grain of the meat, silver skin has it’s own grain to speak of. Line your knife up against the grain and carefully poke it under. Don’t worry about getting all the silver skin in one go either. Much like fat you can take several turns getting it all clear from the meat.”

Eriolta carefully poked through one side of the silver skin perpendicular to the grain and let the end of her knife poke out another section of the grain. The knife itself seemed to hover perfectly between the meat and the silver skin. Carefully she slid her finger into the opening that her knife had left, and she used her fingers to grip the silver skin much like the fat. Angling her knife upward, she let the knife slide along the silver skin until it came free at one end. Turning her knife in the opposite direction, she let the knife slide the other way until a section of the silver skin came free.

”Simply repeat this little trick until you have removed all the silver skin. Just do your best to avoid taking any of the meat.” Eriolta returned to the rest of the silver skin still lying on her loin and Alek blew out a breath. She made it look so simple.

Estimating the middle of the silver skin on her own loin, Alek used the tip of her knife to try and poke through the skin. It resisted and she found she really had to give her knife a good amount of pressure before the skin gave away underneath. Slowly she tried to avoid the meat as her knife punctured the other side of the skin. It was a smaller slice than she had tried for, but using her right index finger she barely managed to wiggle her finger into the slices she had made. Gripping the thin slice of silver skin between her finger and thumb she sliced her knife slowly through the silver skin until it reached the end of the meat. Gripping the silver skin was harder than it looked, given it’s smooth surface and fatty oils. It did however come free with little effort really and she managed to keep most of the meat attached to the loin rather than the skin.

Turning her knife she held the silver skin tight and she slide the knife through the skin in the opposite direction until it came free. Some of the meat clung to this half of the skin and she realized she hadn’t angled the knife up enough to keep the knife from slicing the loin along the with skin. Sighing, she tossed the silver skin off to the side with the discarded fat pieces and returned to the silver skin still left on her loin.

[Alekxandra Winterflame]

It took another four attempts to cleanly remove the silver skin from her loin. The meat did not look as neatly trimmed as Eriolta’s piece of loin, but it certainly did not look completely butchered and useless either. All in all it was a decent first attempt at cleaning up a loin.

”Very good. All that’s left is to really portion up our meat so that the cooks can have them to cook off. But first, we need to remove another small section of loin up here at the top. This piece of meat will cut away easily like the other two, but if we don’t remove it then it might cause tough meat later. It will be another piece of meat we can cook later.”

At the top of the loin at the thickest part, Eriolta ran her fingers along seam in the meat. Alek could see it was another section that clung to the main portion of loin mostly by fat. Looking down at her own she found the seam on her own loin and carefully slipped her knife between the two and made several small incisions into the meat until it came free. Placing it up next to the other two sections of meat that they could clean up later, Alek found that the loin was fairly even now.

Eriolta reached to her left and picked up two knives. These were slicing knives that were nearly a foot long and several inches tall compared to the thin boning knives they had been using previously. She placed the second knife down next to Alek’s loin before moving back to hers. Using the new knife, she cut the smallest tip off in one smooth motion.

”This isn’t much good for portions, but we can use it with the longer piece of chain meat we sliced earlier.” Tossing the tip to the spare meat, Eriolta lifted her free and motioned to her index finger.

”We want the meat to be thick and even as possible for cooking. About the length of your finger here should do nicely. This first piece that we will cut however will be nearly twice the length. We will need to cut it nearly in half and fold it over to match the rest of meat steaks.”

Using her knife she cut about a three inch slice of meat, drawing the knife down and through the meat in one neat stroke. Taking the slice of meat she then cut through it again down the middle, just barely stopping of severing the piece into two. Putting down her knife she took the sliced meat and folded outward and pressed it together. Alek would have never guessed that the steak was actually folded over itself it looked so neat.

[Alekxandra Winterflame]

Alek took the second slicing knife and carefully lined up the knife along the meat at her best guess. The knife seemed to do most of the hard work for her as she gently applied pressure downwards and pulled the knife towards her. Lining up the knife the second time in the middle, she pressed downwards again and pulled in one smooth stroke. Eriolta clucked her tongue at her however and shook her head.

”You didn’t cut deep enough. Remember you need to nearly cut the meat in half entirely. Just a small section to hold it together. The more slices you have to do, the tougher the meat will be.” Pursing her lips slightly, Alek returned the knife to the meat, cutting through the remainder of the it until just a small section connected the two. Putting down her knife she flipped her steak open along the seam she had just created. It was obvious she had to make two cuts, as the meat was not smooth along the seam like Eriolta’s.

”Don’t worry. Practice my dear. Let’s finish cutting these.” Alek did as she was told, using her index finger to estimate the length of each steak. Placing the back end of the knife against the meat and applying firm and gentle pressure to glide through the meat in one stroke while her right hand held the meat steady. She cut several thick steaks from the loin until it was nothing but meat steaks. Clapping her on the back, Eriolta smiled brightly at her.

”Good job. These will most likely be used up by the first rush tonight.” Alek couldn’t help but grin like a fool. She was proud of herself for learning something new and being useful always made the night easier. But after a moment she realized Eriolta’s words. The first round of evening rush.

”Does that mean…?” Before she could finish asking her question, Eriolta reappeared next to her, dropping a fresh loin onto her table before her, laughing at the look on Alek’s face.

”It means practice my dear. All night.”

Alek couldn’t help but let out a long drawn out groan.

[Epifanio Snowsong]

Title and Date

 

Alekxandra Winterflame

Skills

• Cooking +5
• Butchering +5
• Socialization +2
• Organization +1
• Observation +5

Lores

• Nevar Winterflame: Boss
• Eirolta: Right hand “man” of Nevar
• Cooking: Elk Tenderloin (A delicate meat)
• Cooking: Uses of a boning knife
• Cooking: Trimming and preparing tenderloin
• Cooking: Fat in the meat: Marble
• Cooking: Separating portions of meat
• Cooking: Waste from messing up a cut
• Cooking: Cleaning off fat from meat
• Cooking: Don’t remove all fat. Fat is flavor.
• Cooking: Silverskin: making sure it is all exposed
• Cooking: Using a knife to separate silver-skin from meat
• Cooking: Grain of meat; Direction muscles go.
• Cooking: Gliding the knife and pulling the silver-skin. Easy removal technique.
• Cooking: proper portions of a loin
• Cooking: using scraps for chainmeat
• Cooking: Result of not cutting deep enough
• Socialization: Following directions
• Organization: Keeping meat in proper workspace
• Observation: Watch closely when being taught
  

Comments: Great starter job thread. If you have any question regarding your grade feel free to pm me. Remember to edit your post in the grading thread.