IPPA student Taste competition highlights pork blade steak

Mar 20, 2023

Culinary students were challenged to create their tastiest pork blade steak entrée for the annual student Taste competition, hosted by the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

Eight teams from four Iowa colleges and universities had two hours in the kitchen to prepare their recipes that were required to utilize pork blade steak. That pork cut is sliced from the same shoulder section known as a Boston butt, which is commonly slow-cooked for pulled pork.

"These aspiring chefs help make the pork industry successful," said Kelsey Sutter, IPPA’s marketing and programs director. "This competition is a learning opportunity and hopefully encourages them to serve pork wherever their careers take them."

Teams consisted of two to four students, and their entrées were judged on taste, appearance, complementing side dishes, and design. The competition took place at the Iowa Culinary Institute on the Des Moines Area Community College campus in Ankeny.

The first-place team from Iowa State University was the Culinary CYentists, a play on ISU's Cy the Cardinal mascot. Members included sophomore Jaelyn Luong, Des Moines; sophomore Izabele Jaime, Mason City; junior Evelyn Greenbury, Arlington Heights, Illinois; and freshman Lucas Brown, Lakewood Ranch, Florida.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

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