WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD? TO AVOID THE GRINDER AT THE ISCC!

After thousands of taxpayer dollars spent and months of due consideration, study, consultations and examination by experts in nutrition, medicine and other fields applicable to human physiology, the new IDOC prisoner food menu is in full effect as of July 1, 2023. It remains to be seen however how the fare will fare, but early expectations are low, especially when it comes to serving size descriptions, portion manipulation, and especially with chicken grinding.

Here's an example... On Day 1 (the menu operates on a 28 day rotation) the mainline (non-special diet) menu calls for serving a "3 oz. Chicken Filet" [amongst other food] for the supper meal. Pretty clear... a piece of chicken that weighs 3 ounces. Instead, on Day 1 - as has been happening for several months (at least at the ISCC) - what is actually served, and the amount served, deviates significantly from what is called for on the menu.

For Day 1 supper, breaded chicken patties were ground up into a pan and served. A scoop purported to hold a 3 ounce serving of the ground chicken was used to dole out the portions to individual trays. Almost certainly the chicken filets to be served on Day 10, 16 and 19 will meet the same fate. Here's what's wrong with that...

First, a chicken filet is not ground chicken. Indeed, ISCC food service staff have been using this tactic to make portions look significantly larger than what they are. A chicken filet (let's just call it what it is... a chicken patty) is just that - chicken, with specific nutritional, caloric and protein properties not present in (for example) bread. The patties are undoubtedly available from the vendor/supplier in premeasured (3 oz.) portions. A 3 oz. BREADED chicken patty (said by prisoner food service workers to be what is being received from the vendor and ground up) is not 3 ounces of chicken, as a significant portion of the patty is breading, not chicken.

On top of that, once the chicken is ground, larger portions of the (actual) fowl are removed from the pan by inmate workers, and while they are supposed to be once again run through the grinder (the chicken pieces, not the prisoners) more often than not the bird meat finds its way out of the kitchen in plastic bags stuffed down the pants of prisoners, placed in "diet" trays, coffee mugs, commissary bags or other containers where the food is secreted out of the kitchen to the unit, leaving the majority of prisoners with nothing but breading and a few scraps of chicken, far short of the 3 ounce menu calling.

Food service and IDOC nutritionists are well aware of the meat v. breading issue. Day 4 of the mainline menu calls for "3 oz Breaded Fish". Note the word BREADED. Meatloaf on Day 8 is to be a 5 ounce serving, and Day 26 is to bring prisoners 4 ounces of Roast Beef. Unfortunately, the way ISCC food service staff have been grinding the beef (or as I would describe it --- liquefying it) it is difficult for one to determine where the beef ends and the brown gravy begins.

Other than to give the perception of more food, there is no legitimate reason to grind any of the meat on the mainline menu, unless it is specifically called for. Staff have commented that grinding the food makes it easier to serve, ensuring that each portion on each tray is identical. While there might be some sense in this, it does not account for the fact that where the product is already portioned, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The menu planners also use the terms 'sliced', and 'diced' to describe how to prepare food in the version 7.1 menu, so it's more than reasonable to assume that if they wanted the chicken to be 'ground' or otherwise similarly mutilated they would have used the descriptive verb to cause it to happen.

If the staff member ordering the food is choosing to order chicken pieces in inconsistent sizes, or sizes that do not comport with portion sizes set forth in the menu, there is more than enough inmate labor to correctly portion the sizes without grinding it. Alternatively, just order portions as set forth in the menu!

Oh yea, and while I'm on the subject, where the menu calls for a "Patty", "Piece" or "Slice" without specifically noting a weight measurement such as with Day 9 with '2 pieces' of pizza, Day 15 with '1 piece' of Salisbury steak' and Day 28 with '1 Beef Patty', issues are going to arise.

It is not uncommon to open 2 trays to find a piece of pizza in one that measures 3 by 3 inches, while the next tray has a piece measuring 5 by 8 inches. Other times the "patty" that weighed 3 ounces for the past 6 months will suddenly weigh only 2 ounces. While (some) food service staff will attempt to rectify the issue, others will point to the menu while stating, "Well, it says 'piece' [or 'patty'], it doesn't say how big it has to be."

Day 23 doesn't even identify a serving portion (size) of "Pizza Supreme" prisoners are to be served. I suppose we'll just have to depend on how much they give us rather than relying on the scientifically designed and costly meal planning schedule. Winging it would be fine, if the wings weren't breaded or shoved through the grinder.