Meat, Poultry and Seafood
Structure and cookery
Muscle fibre, connective tissue and fat determine method. Collagen from active muscles converts to gelatin with long, moist heat, so braise those cuts; less-used muscles are tender and suit dry heat. Elastin does not soften. Know primal and sub-primal cuts, Canadian beef grades (A, AA, AAA, Prime by marbling and age), aging, and fabrication terms like butterfly, French trim and truss.
Doneness temperatures
Whole-muscle beef and lamb 63 °C (145 °F) with a rest, ground beef and pork 71 °C (160 °F), poultry and stuffed products 74 °C (165 °F), fish 63 °C or until it flakes. Carryover cooking continues after removal, so pull below target. Resting allows juices to redistribute. Never pierce a roasting meat or poultry.
Poultry and seafood
Poultry: truss for even shape, cook breast and thigh to safe temperature, and remember dark meat tolerates higher heat. Seafood freshness: clear bulging eyes, bright red gills, firm springy flesh, clean sea smell, closed shells on live molluscs, live lobster tail that curls. Flat fish and round fish, molluscs and crustaceans; cooking methods include poaching, steaming, grilling, pan-frying and deep-frying.
Worked example: 4 kg of bone-in beef short rib yields 2.6 kg after trimming and cooking, a 65% yield. Costing uses edible-portion weight, not purchase weight.
Traps: using 63 °C for ground meat; forgetting the rest; assuming colour equals doneness in ground poultry; buying shellfish with open shells; confusing a bone-in yield test with a trim loss.