Can You Pass This Butcher's Quiz?

"Fabrication" is the art of cutting up a very large portion of raw meat into manageable cuts. Sometimes, this even means cutting the meat into serving sizes.

Some vegetables, like fennel, have "bulbs." Meats do not. There are many other cuts of meat beside the three listed above.

Palettes are used by painters (they are the plates with indentations that hold paint in use), and so are palette knives. The other three are all commonly used by butchers -- even clam knives, which can be used to french roasts.

The culinary and lumber industry both use the term "grain" in referring to the texture of the material they work with. In cooking, you'll hear about cutting "with" or "against the grain."

Sausage, hamburger, chorizo -- all of these are made with meat grinders. Grinding meat in-house is a good way to control food safety, as the grinding process makes it very easy for foreign pathogens to get mixed into meat, and this is especially true at large-scale meatpacking plants.

The very young have developing immune systems, and the elderly often have weakened ones. This puts them on par with immunosuppressed people when it comes to foodborne illness. That is, they're likely to be hit harder by them, possibly even fatally.

Vacuum-sealing withdraws air from the packaging, reducing the chance that pathogens in the air will touch and affect the meat. Essentially, meat should touch as few things as possible in order to reduce the risk of spoilage.

Not all sausage needs a casing -- the thin membrane that holds it in a long, hot-dog shape. Sausage can be shaped into patties or crumbled and mixed with other foods. But when people refer to "a sausage," they mean one in a casing.

Once meat is individually cut for serving, it doesn't last very long. It's better to keep meat in larger cuts until it's needed.

Large restaurant refrigerators are commonly called "walk-ins," and are kept just above freezing. Meatpacking plants can store their meat at freezing temperatures, because they don't need to worry about thawing it to cook -- that's the restaurant's job.

Although you might associate scimitars with works of fiction like "The Arabian Nights," it is also a knife used in fabrication. A cooking scimitar is usually 12 to 16 inches long with a curved blade.

Sharpening stones, once called "whetstones," are lubricated with either water or oil. These aren't just for butchers -- you can buy a sharpening stone for your home kitchen.

Sharpening stones start at about 100-grit, which will take a lot of material off your knife, so be careful. A higher grit is probably better, even on the coarse end.

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, author of the weighty opus "The Food Lab," says that most cooks won't need such a high number. He does caution, though, that "You won't believe the difference a sharp blade makes in your cooking."

These are fairly expensive cuts of beef. You might have had them in a steakhouse.

While most of us think of lamb when we think of crown roasts, this can be done with pork, too. If you don't think of anything when we say "crown roast," it's a rib roast shaped in a circle with the bones pointing upward. It's a very striking arrangement.

The upper leg of a pig is generously sized. That's why it provides us with that big cut of meat, the ham.

Brisket is a favored cut for barbecue. It's cooked for hours over a low, cool fire.

120 degrees F will give you a rare steak -- which might feel unpleasantly wet or mushy in the mouth. Cook temperatures go up in increments of 10 from there, and 160 degrees is well-done, which is too hard and gray for most people.

"Mutton" is the cook's name for the meat of a sheep. "Lamb" is considered more desirable, so most are killed between 6 - 12 months of age.

Pork shoulder isn't from the part of the body we usually think of as the "butt." It's actually the shoulder, because "butt" comes from a German word meaning "widest part."

"Forcemeat" is an old-fashioned word for ground meat. It is sometimes used as stuffing.

You've most likely heard this word as "ham hock." Ham hocks are added to stews or red and beans and rice to add flavor.

There are eight USDA grades of beef. They are Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner.

This doesn't sound like much! However, more than two inches will affect how you cook the cut of meat -- roasts are carefully baked according to their weight, so they're still tender in the center, but all potential pathogens are killed.

Lamb and veal chops are often frenched to make for a nicer presentation on the plate. Left alone, chops have fat and sinew all the way to the ends of the bones; this is how pork chops usually come to the table. Leaving some bone sticking out, sometimes with a white butcher-paper wrapping, looks a lot classier.

The filet mignon and Chateaubriand cuts come from very small muscles called the psoas major. They are known for their tenderness, excellent flavor, and high cost.

The difference between braising and boiling is that braising is done in a mix of liquids, not just water. This might include wine or broth.

It's easy to see where this name comes from. The cut of meat is sliced so that it resembles two wings that join at a lengthwise center, like a butterfly.

"Spatchcocking" is thought to be a shortening of "dispatch the cock." This means it was a quick way to dress and cook a newly killed bird.

Skirt steak is an inexpensive cut that is very tasty when cooked right. Fun fact: "Fajita" comes from the Spanish word "asfajita," meaning "little belt." Who knew there were so many fashion terms in butchery?

"Sous vide" is French for "under vacuum," and involves slowly cooking the meat in a water bath, in the aforementioned bag. But surprise! It doesn't actually have to have a complete vacuum seal. According to "Food Lab" author Lopez-Alt, carefully pressing excess air out of a zippered plastic bag will give you the same effect.

Baby-back ribs get their name because they are smaller than regular spareribs. The animal is the same age.

"Brat" is short for "bratwurst," and is pronounced "brot." Inexpensive to buy, they taste great with mustard and a beer on the side.

You can pick up a salami or some pancetta at the delicatessen, but not a pound of raw pork. Today, of course, delis are also a place to find cheeses, wines, candy and more.