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Teaching of a Basic Meats Course

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Teaching of a Basic Meats Course 173 fZACHlNG A BASIC NEATS COURSZ BY OEWORSTRATlOW TECHNIQUES 0 A, We HULLINS .*...--..-*.-..*.*...*...........-.*-...UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI I find myself in a very awkward situation. In the first place I am following a very noted person, Mr. Ken Warner on the program, who is an authority on teaching methods, and secondly, I am talking to a group of very competent teachers with much more experience in the teaching profession than I have had. However, I would like to present to you our method of teaching a basic meats course at Missouri. Later, we would welcome any comments or questions in the way of constructive criticism or otherwise that any of you might have. First, I would libe to give you an idea of the amount of class hours involved in our basic course and the objectives we have outlined. Our basic meat classes meet 3-2 hour periods per week. These periods are arranged for either a laboratory period or a lecture period, Bowever, in the past it has evolved around one lecture period and two laboratory periods. Our ob- jectives in the course are to familiarize the student with the livestock and meat industry relationships, i.e. live animal carcass comparison, slaughter- ing, cutting, curing and smoking? identification, selection, processing, dis- tribution, utilization of meat and meat products. As more and more subJect material became available in these areas, we found we did not have time to present the students with the subject matter and still do the amount of slaughtering and processing that had been done in the past. When we analyzed the situation we came to the conclusion that slaughtering and processing were not what the student should be doing in the course as very few if any of the students would ever need to have this type of experience. We did make it possible, however, for any student who was interested particularly in this type of work to @in some experience by work- ing in the meat laboratory. We arranged our teaching program around a demonstmCiona1 type of presentation. We also canvassed the meat industry for visual aid materials to support this method of presentation. We found to our surprise over thirty color and sound films which were applicable to the subject matter we wanted to present. The Meat Board was very helpful in this venture and supplied us with several films and suggestions concerning other films. Our course has been taught for two semesters by the procedure which I shall outline to you, and we have had the occasion to see some of these students in our advanced meat class, a6 well as, get their reactions to the way the course is being taught. shall relate some of their comments to you later. I I shall present to you an outline of the subdect matter and manner or presentation which we follow in our basic meats course. 174. IJe usually spend the laboratory seriods of the first week intro- duciug the student to the laboratory facilities and issuing equipment. Knives are also sharpened during this week. However, the students are not required to purchase aw of the knives, but roost of them buy a boning knife. An in- troductory film entitled "Miracle of Feedbg America'' is shown the first week which is a very good introduction to the relationships of the various aspects of the meat industry. The first subject matter presented is principles on refrigeration, packaging andsanitation. Another film, "The Story of Packaging" which gives an animated description of the role of packaging is used during the lecture on packaging. Refrigeration diagrams and a demonstration of cleaning and sanitizing procedures are also presented during the lectures on cleaning, sanitation and refrigeration. The student is introduced to Agricultural Statistics with special reference to livestock production and consumption. Pictorial graphs are available for depicting the geographical areas of major production and major consumption with respect to different species. At the second half of the lecture period during the third week the students are introduced to live aniual evaluation by actually participating In a live animal evaluation exercise. Animals are evaluated similarily to the methods used in the live animal evaluation clinics. These animals ere slaugh- tered the following week with a demonstration slaughter by the instructor. The film "Leaner Hogs and Longer h-ofits" is used when pork is to be evaluated as it depicts some of the aspects of producing the right kind of hogs and what to look for in meat type hogs, Following the demonstration on pork slaughter, there is a cutting test demonstration (wholesale-cuts only). The students are -ked to do the calculations on the cutting sheets and hand them in the next class period. Composition end stmcture of meat is discussed in a lecture period and the film entitled "There's Cold in Meat" is shown later to crystallize Borne of the major points of discussion and introduces the student to merchan- dising and cooking of meat. The following week lard manufacturing and curing are presented by lecturing during the laboratory periods and by demonstrating In the laboratory the techniques involved. Meat inspection is discussed rather thoroughly and usually a visiting lecturer (Veterinarian) presents this lec- Iture, The film "Meat with Approval" is shown after this lecture which shows the purpose of meat inspection and the steps of inspection from live animals through to the finished product. This film is old but does a very nice job of conveying the message on meat inspection. The following week is spent on pork merchandising, i.e. cutting into various retail cuts and identification of all the various cuts. The labora- tory technician and student labor slaughter the animals required for this demonstration. Both fresh and cured products are utilized in these merchan- dising demonstrations, Another film "Pork Round the Clock" aids in telling the merchandising story on pork. The class also visits a local slaughtering, wholesale and retail establishment during a laboratory period to culminate tkreir concept on pork slaughter, processing and merchandising. At this point 175. the student gets some real experience in student participation in the form of an examination over the material which has been presented. An identifi- cation test over all cuts of pork is also given at this time. Meat grading is discussed at some length with special reference to each of the three species. Color slides are used in this presentation to illustrate various grade characteristics, Carcasses are also used in gradix exercises when available. The student always gets to see the carcasses and cuts from the live animals which they have previously evaluated. The students again evaluate another class of livestock of a differ- ent species and these animals are slaughtered the following week in another demonstration slaughter. TM students are permitted to participate in the demonstration slaughter at times but it is done primarily by the instructor with narration as 5% is being done. The film "Can-Pack System of Dressing Beef" is show& after the beef slaughtering demonstration which enlightens the studat on the most modern ways of dressing beef. One lecture period is devoted to discussing the nutritive value of meat and we expound on some of the fads and fancies of people concerning meat and meat products, Two or three good films are available fo? use here: "The Way to a Man's Heart", or "Three to Get Ready" are both applicable and tell a colorful story of the nation's meat industry and the recent findings on the nutritive value of meat and its place in the balanced diet. A demonstration beef cutting test is performed similar to the pork cutting test with the students having an assignment on the cutting test. The carcasses are broken down into the wholesale cuts during the first cutting test and later are merchandized into the various retail cuts from which another cutting test is performed. Considerable time is spent in discussing beef mer- chandising and identification, selection, etc. of the various beef cuts. One carcass is completely boned and fabricated into the various portion-sized and formed cuts commonly seen in frozen meats. Cutting tests are performed on this demonstration also. Another film entitled "Thanks to Beef" is used to docu- ment the merchandising aspects of beef. Livestock conservation is discussed rather extensively with the use of placard or posters and a lpery goOa film entitled "An Ounce of Prevention" which emphasizes proper care of livestock on farms and in transit as well as at the slaughter station. Meat deterioration is also discussed both from a pathogenic and non-pathogenic viewpoint with special reference to food poisoning caused by bacteria Meat preservation other than curing is also discussed, i.e., canning, freezing, dehydration, etc., but at present we have not found suit- able visual aid material to support OUT material on these sub3ects. Meat cookery is discussed throughout the course in the discussion on selection and use of various cuts but a lecture period is devoted to the detailed explanation on cookery. A cooking demonstration is given during a laboratory period using various metbcdsofcookery. At the same time a carving- 176. demonstration is performed on the various cuts with the student participating by eating the product. Films entitled "ABC of Meat Cookery and Carving" and "Over the Baclryard Grill" are used to document these demonstrations. We find this demonstration is a good morale builder among the students. By-products of the meat industry are discussed in some detail with the use of several dozens of samples of the various finished materials made from by-products. Also a very good film entitled "By-Products" is used to support this lecture.
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