The habit of grinding meat has appeared in humanity for a long time: most likely since the time when the ancient people accustomed their babies to meat food, but still did not know how to file patents for inventions.
But minced meat is the greatest discovery of mankind in the field of culinary, because without it people would not be familiar with many dishes of minced meat.
True, the name "cutlet" was coined by the French relatively recently - only three centuries ago, and the word did not originally mean minced meat, but a piece of good tenderloin on a bone, beaten, breaded and fried.
But now every lover of a dish can present a chopped pork cutlet in its own way, including at the same time turning on its culinary imagination and not denying itself this addiction.
Chopped pork cutlets - basic technological principles
Pork is a type of meat, to which you can pick up dozens of different products from other types of meat, meat and dairy products, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits and even berries, with which it will be very harmoniously combined, and complement the picture of spices and herbs that people have discovered for myself, too much. It turns out that one can fry chopped pork cutlets from pork pulp for three hundred and sixty-five days a year, never repeating the recipe for a year. Of course, to write, in this case, a detailed routing for each recipe is extremely difficult.
It remains to highlight the main points in the preparation of chopped pork cutlets, on which you need to focus.
Selection of quality products. Everything is clear here: compliance with this condition is directly related to food safety.
Preparing the ingredients for the dish. The meat is washed, stripped of the films, crushed, like all other components that make up the cutlets. For minced meat, depending on the type of cutlets, the meat is chopped with a sharp knife or use special kitchen appliances. For chopped schnitzels, slicing meat with a knife is used or a large grid in a meat grinder is used. For a knel mass, meat is minced in a meat grinder twice, to form a more tender mass with a uniform consistency. In accordance with one or another recipe for chopped pork cutlets, additional ingredients are used, which should together with the meat make up a homogeneous structure of minced meat.
The formation of semi-finished products from cooked minced meat. The size and shape of the cutlets may vary. It is important to remember that in the process of frying the cutlet must not burn on the outside and be fried inside. Therefore, the shape and size matter: and these indicators depend on the composition of the minced meat. If the volume of the semi-finished product is 100 - 120 g, it is better to form a flat patty so that it is fried inside. For complex recipes of cutlets, with minced meat inside (zraz), a special heat treatment mode is provided - deep-fried cooking.
Heat treatment. So that the cutlets do not crumble during the frying process and stick to the pan, heat the fat to a boil, and only then place the semi-finished products in the pan. Fry one side over high heat until sufficient mass density is obtained. After the appearance of a golden brown crust (check by slightly raising the cutlet), the products are turned over, fried for another 4-5 minutes, the intense fire is removed and the pan is covered with a lid to make sure the meat is fried inside.
A properly fried cutlet should have a crispy texture on the outside, if breaded, and a juicy inside. For cutlets without breading, the consistency should be uniform, both inside and out.
The purity of the cutlet mass is achieved by adding water or milk, products containing a large amount of moisture. But do not overdo it with additives: the cutlet should be at least 60% meat, not onion or bread.
Recipe 1. Chopped natural pork cutlets
Grocery list:
Pork (neck) 800 g
Salt pepper
Egg 2 pcs.
Rusks, white (for breading) 200 g
Water 50 ml
Fat 100 ml
Cooking:
Wash the pulp, remove the film, dry and cut into cubes of 0.5x0.5 cm or use a meat grinder with a large grill. Add pepper, salt. Stir the patty mass to evenly distribute flavorings and beat off: fragments of the chopped mass must stick together and not crumble. Keep the minced meat in the refrigerator for ripening.
Remove no earlier than half an hour and divide into portions of 130 g. In a deep bowl, break the eggs, beat them with a whisk and add water. Pour breadcrumbs onto a wide and flat dish and spread them over the entire surface. Heat fat in a pan. Form flat oval cutlets. Dip them in beaten eggs and, crunching in breadcrumbs, put in hot fat. Fry until golden brown on both sides, in turn.
Recipe 2. Chopped homemade pork cutlets
Composition:
Pork pulp (fatty part) 1.0 kg
200 g roll
Salt
Egg 2 pcs.
Onion 250 g
Pepper
Milk 100 ml
Oil or fat (for frying)
Breading
Garlic 40 g
Cooking method:
Pieces of stale rolls moisten with milk. Add chopped onion, minced garlic, spices, a loaf soaked in milk and beat eggs to the minced meat. Stuff the minced meat and form cutlets. Fry in medium-to-high fat. After turning the patties in 3-4 minutes on the other side, fry them until golden brown and cover the pan with a lid and steam the patties for 3-4 minutes.
Recipe 3. Chopped pork cutlets
Component List:
Low-fat beef (pulp) 0.5 kg
Pork (fatty part) 500 g
Mixture of peppers
Shallot 50 g
Porcini mushrooms, fried 300 g
Potato 100 g
Egg 1 pc.
Semolina and sesame seeds (breading 50/50)
Onion 150 g
Butter
Salt
Cooking method:
Finely chop the fried mushrooms, season them with spices and combine with chopped shallots. Make minced meat from minced meat, onions and peeled raw potatoes. Season the mass with pepper and salt, beat and form flat round cakes. Put mushroom stuffing in the center of each semi-finished product and wrap it with minced meat. Roll the balls, dip them in an egg and in a mixture of semolina with sesame seeds and fry cutlets in boiling deep-fried.
Recipe 4. Chopped pork and apple cutlets
Ingredients:
Apples (mashed potatoes) 350 g
Salt
Low Fat Pork 1.0 kg
Rusks, white
Butter
Cooking:
Chop the meat with salt and combine with applesauce. Bread formed patties in breadcrumbs. Cover the baking sheet with foil or parchment, grease with oil. Bake cutlets in the oven. Serve with sour cream.
Recipe 5. Chopped pork and beef cutlets in Donbass
Ingredients:
Minced meat, pork and beef 900 g
Fine salt
Butter 160 g
City roll or loaf 350 g
Eggs, raw 2 pcs.
Oil (for deep fat)
Water 100 ml
Order of preparation:
Chop the meat with salt and beat. Grate fresh white roll on a coarse grater. Beat eggs with water in a blender. Divide the frozen butter and cutlet mass into 6 servings. From the meat, form round and flat cakes 6-6.5 cm in diameter. Lubricate their surface with egg mass and put on a piece of oil. Wrap it in minced meat, giving the patties the shape of an elongated and voluminous oval. Dip twice in an egg and then in breadcrumbs, gently pressing each time to keep the breading tight. Heat the oil in a deep fryer to a boil and fry until crisp.
Recipe 6. Chopped pork and beef liver patties
Ingredients:
Liver
Bow
Salt
Garlic
Butter
Breadcrumbs
Minced pork
Egg
Pepper
Cooking:
Peel the beef liver from the film and bile ducts, cut into small bars, beat slightly and fry for 2 minutes on both sides. Sauté randomly chopped onions and garlic. When the liver and onions have cooled, put them in a combine or a blender, add butter, spices and turn into a paste of lush consistency.
Divide the chopped pork into 100 g portions and form flat circles no more than 1 cm thick. Lay in the center formed from liver paste and chilled balls. Wrap the paste in minced meat. Bread semi-finished products in eggs and breadcrumbs twice. Spherical cutlets fry in boiling deep-frying.
Recipe 7. Chopped pork and zucchini cutlets
Ingredients Composition:
Raw Chicken Egg 1 pc.
Zucchini 250 g
Salt
Pork pulp (minced meat) about 1.0 kg
Spices (ground pepper, cloves, coriander)
Lemon
Garlic
Flour
Fat (for frying)
Cooking:
Season the cutlet meat with a mixture of ground spices, fresh lemon zest, salt and form balls, 50-60 g each. In a bowl, beat the egg, squeeze the juice of half a lemon, add the finely chopped clove of garlic, mix. To this mixture add grated zucchini on a medium grater and mix the mass again. The mixture should not be too liquid: so add flour if necessary so that the mass sticks together.
Steam the meat balls, roll in flour and in the prepared dough from zucchini and eggs. Immerse immediately in boiling oil and fry until golden brown. Spread on a sieve or napkin to remove excess fat. These cutlets are great for lemon sauce and a side dish of boiled rice.
Chopped pork cutlets - useful tips and tricks
Well-chopped cutlet meat lets out juice containing collagen - a sticky substance that helps maintain the shape of the cake mix. But it happens that cutlets scatter in a pan.
There may be several reasons for this.
Adding a small amount of starch, flour, and eggs to the mincemeat will quickly correct the situation.
At the same time, the minced meat must be thoroughly mixed again, beat off and given time to let it stand a little in the cold.
Therefore, starting to fry the cutlets, first try to fry only one to check the consistency of the minced meat and taste the cutlet.
