Such plain everyday cutlets. They are prepared from beef and pork, chicken and fish, vegetables and mushrooms. Garnish is traditionally pasta, potatoes or rice. It would seem that there is nothing easier than to cook such a mundane dish. Well, who does not know how to fry meatballs properly? However, those who are going to do this for the first time will certainly encounter certain difficulties. Surely, for many beginning housewives, cutlets were either burnt, sometimes not fried inside, then too dry and tasteless, or simply fell apart or pestered in a frying pan. There are simple rules, thanks to which you can learn how to properly fry cutlets, so that they turn out fragrant, juicy and tender, and the cooking process has become pleasant and easy.
The taste of cutlets depends on the quality of meat, the composition of the products and the cooking technology. It’s best to buy the ingredients and cook the minced meat yourself. To do this, you need 0.5 kg of meat, 1 egg, 3 pieces of stale loaf, 1-2 onions, salt and black pepper to taste, breadcrumbs or flour. Cut the meat into slices and turn through a meat grinder. Onions can be scrolled with meat or finely chopped with a knife, but it is best to grate it on a fine grater - this will make the meatballs more juicy. Next, add an egg soaked in milk or water without a crust, salt, pepper and mix well.
Take the minced meat with a spoon, put it on the palm of your hand and throw it several times from one palm to another. Give the patty the desired shape by patting it on the surface. When sculpting cutlets, hands should be moistened with cold water each time so that the meat does not stick to them. Cutlets can be oblong or round, their usual size is 10 cm in length, 5 cm in width and about 2 cm in thickness, but some housewives make cutlets smaller. The main thing is that at the same time cutlets of the same size are cooked in a pan, otherwise large ones may be undercooked, and small ones will turn out to be too dry.
So, how to fry meat patties? First they are rolled in flour or bread crumbs, then they are placed in a frying pan well preheated with a small amount of oil. If the pan is not hot enough, the patties will stick. On a hot frying pan on the patties, a golden crust is quickly formed, which prevents them from spreading out and the juice flowing out. After the formation of the crust, turn them over with a wooden spatula and put on a slow fire. How to fry cutlets - under or without a lid? It is believed that with the lid covered, the dish loses less moisture and turns juicier. It is necessary to cover the cutlets with a lid after they have been turned upside down, but you do not need to cover it - a matter of taste. To check the readiness, you should pierce the cutlet - if clear juice flows out - ready, if the juice is cloudy or with blood, you still need to hold it on fire. Some housewives immediately fry the cutlets on both sides over high heat until crusty, then reduce the heat, add water, cover the pan with a lid and bring the dish to cook.
There are various options for the preparation of meatballs, and each housewife, having experimented, knows for sure how to fry meatballs in order to please the household.
As for meat, cutlets can be made from beef, veal, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey. Many housewives cook combined minced meat. The meat is either rolled through a meat grinder, or finely chopped by hand. Chopped meatballs are more juicy.
Stuffing can be made from fatty meat, that is, scroll with meat and lard. Just don’t put too much fat, otherwise the meatballs will lose shape when frying and become small. Some housewives do not put an egg in the mincemeat, believing that the cutlets are more rigid.
Bread in minced meat can be put both wheat and rye, as they say, "for everybody." It can be soaked in water or milk and combined with minced meat, or skipped in a meat grinder with meat, and add water or milk separately. You should not put soft fresh bread in mincemeat - it gives stickiness to cutlets.
You can add a lot of onions - there are amateurs in whom the amount of onion in the stuffing is half the weight of the meat. Vegetables, both raw and boiled, are often put in cutlets. It can be potatoes, zucchini, pumpkin, carrots or a mixture of vegetables. In addition to black pepper and salt, other spices are added to the stuffing : coriander, cinnamon, red pepper, mustard, chopped herbs.
How to fry cutlets in a non-stick pan ? In this case, they can not be crushed in flour or breadcrumbs. If the pan is burnt, then before you put a new batch, you must remove the burnt layer or wash the pan. Ready cutlets have a gray color in the section, and if they are reddish, it means that they are still under-cooked.