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Prime cuts (beef, lamb, venison etc.) should be cooked to the customers' request:
a. A blue bleu steak is browned on the outside and blood warm in the middle.
b. Rare meat is red in the centre.
c. Medium meat is pink in the centre.
d. Well done meat is brown through.
11. Shallow or pan frying - a dry method of cookery where food is cooked using a small amount
of hot oil or fat in a shallow pan. Food is shallow fried for variety as well as making it more
palatable and digestible.
There are several variations of shallow frying. They are:
a. Sautéing.
b. Stir-frying.
c. Griddling.
12. Deep-frying - the cooking of food-which is usually coated with breadcrumbs, flour and egg or
flour-immersed in hot oil. Gives the food a crisp golden coating as well as a distinctive flavour
and texture.
A variety of sauces and complementary accompaniments will enhance the dishes.
Doneness
When cooking meats the degree of doneness of some meats will be dependent on customer choice,
that is, beef or lamb steaks and noisettes might be ordered well done, medium, rare or even blue.
Overcooked beef or ox will be tough and dry. In most instances roasted lamb, beef or veal will be
served while still pink in the middle.
With some meats, however, degree of doneness must not be left up to customer choice.
Boar, pork, ground or minced meats including sausages and any offal must be, in order to prevent
the risk of food poisoning or food-borne illness, fully cooked, to an internal temperature greater than
70 °C. The safest and most accurate way to check the internal temperature of meats is to insert a
sanitised electronic or dial face stainless steel probe thermometer.
Cooking offal
When portioning, cooking, and presenting offal for service, staff will need to refer to the relevant
recipes.
Unlike whole pieces of red meat such as steak or chops where microbial contamination is restricted
to the external surfaces, offal can be contaminated with campylobacter on both the inside t issues
and the outer surfaces. To ensure that cooked offal is safe for eating, it is necessary to handle,
prepare and cook the product with special care.
Livers and pates must be thoroughly cooked; that is, cooked all the way through-until an internal
temperature of > 70 °C has been reached.
Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature. Livers and hearts should be cooked until
they are no longer bloody in the core. Colour is not a reliable indicator of effective cooking. Studies
have shown that liver tissue can remain pink after it has reached a safe temperature.
Ensure that offal does not contact other food when being stored and/or prepared.
Cookery methods can include pan (shallow) frying, grilling, braising, deep-frying (coated) or baking
(pates or terrines can be baked in the oven in a bain-marie; kidneys or chicken livers can be cooked in
pastry) and poaching.