Schnitzel is easier than pie.

Hi.

A friend receives every Christmas a box of meat parts. The cuts she doesn't like always end up in my freezer. This year's batch included four half-inch thick slices of pork tenderloin. In my household, a portion of one each and sharing the third would not be very satisfying. Alternatively, I could use a round as minced pork for Chinese eggplant or Szechuan green beans.

Yesterday I began to think of making schnitzel with those pork tenderloin pieces. This morning I called a retired friend who made a point of learning to make schnitzel this last year. He offered two tips: 1) Make sure the pounded pork is absolutely dry before dipping in flour; 2) Better to have more oil in the pan than less. If it comes up over the edges a bit, this was not a bad thing. I also found an enthusiastic article from the Los Angeles Times on Schnitzel's delicious simplicity.

I went over to youtube.com hoping to see the pounding technique, because I have almost never used my tenderizer hammer since I bought it years ago. It was something my Grandmother had in her kitchen, I had it just in case I needed it. I found an expertvillage series on making schnitzel, which was parsed to allow you to jump in where you needed information:

Preparing ingredients for schnitzel


This Chef used bread crumbs from a can. I don't keep this at home, though I had the means for fresh and dried bread crumbs. I finally found some comments that dried was preferred and fresh usable. I called my friend who also favored dried breadcrumbs. I used a dried piece of bread forgotten long before Christmas, which pulverized beautifully in a food processor.

Cutting a schnitzel cutlet


Tenderizing and flattening schnitzel


This was something I might have easily messed up without having this video to review.

Battering schnitzel


The LA Times article suggested allowing the breaded schnitzel to rest 15 minutes before frying to stabilize the crust.

Frying schnitzel


I used peanut oil for cooking these schnitzels. I did use his method of patting the oil off, before placing them on a rack to stay warm in the oven. The tenderloins remained crisp until we ate them.

Serving schnitzel


The last video clued me into serving schnitzel with German Potato Salad. I found a Home and Garden recipe on epicurious.com from February, 1957.

From all the advice, viewing and reading, I made a pretty good first effort making schnitzel and German potato salad. The German red cabbage was canned a long time ago. It was something when I initially made it, I wasn't thrilled. Trying it out today, I found the vinegar soften for a much better taste than what I last recalled. The color was a dismal brownish red.



Schnitzel was something I never saw at my Grandmother's home. Next time I want a pork tenderloin sandwich, I am not going to have travel far now. A piece of pork and some hamburger buns is all that is needed.

Regards,

Looks great Cathy. Thanks for the info.

Between this and wanting to make a few piccata dishes, I guess it's time to pick up a mallet.

Video blogs are really, really helpful when it comes to technique. However, my favorite wiener schnitzel blog post is neither videoed nor photographed.

Cook's recently did schnitzel and they emphasized in the article, and (IIRC) in a later followup that one must not be dainty about the amount of oil. If you don't use enough, the batter won't puff and fluff, which results in a heavy, soggy schnitzel. So, a quarter-inch of oil isn't uncalled for.

Tnx C2 for all the good video help! I've got some pkgs of Knorr Sahnesoße which, I hate to admit, make the perfect thing to ladle over the finished schnitzel.

Geo

That looks great - I think I need to make some Schnitzel tonight!

Hi,

In the Venison for Virgins thread, I queried on preparing a Venison ham roast. When someone suggested chicken fried Venison, I immediately thought of Schnitzel.

Since this was a spur of the moment midweek meal, I wasn't in the mood to pick up a few ingredients. I ran out of flour for the initial coating, I used rice flour instead. I didn't have dried breadcrumbs. I also didn't want to oven toast fresh ones. Instead I toasted sour dough bread, then ground it to crumbs in my coffee grinder. I didn't want to pull out a food processer.

I used whole muscles from the Venison ham roast, then sliced them into 1/4-1/3 inch sections. My favorite muscle was the long oval in the left lower quadrant.


Venison, ham roast by cal222, on Flickr

My schnitzels varied in size depending on where they originated from.


October-20-2010 Venison schnitzel by cal222, on Flickr

There were none left for tomorrow. Just as well since they are best freshly made.

Regards,

Geo wrote:Cook's recently did schnitzel and they emphasized in the article, and (IIRC) in a later followup that one must not be dainty about the amount of oil. If you don't use enough, the batter won't puff and fluff, which results in a heavy, soggy schnitzel. So, a quarter-inch of oil isn't uncalled for.

Tnx C2 for all the good video help! I've got some pkgs of Knorr Sahnesoße which, I hate to admit, make the perfect thing to ladle over the finished schnitzel.

Geo

In Germany you'll often find schnitzels are cooked in the Fry-O-Lator, especially in bars where it's often served as a sandwich on brotchen or rye bread. These would be made from pork (schnitzel refers to the cut of meat, actually cutlet).

Other preparations include pan-fried pork or veal (preferable) schnitzel with toppings like fried egg (ala Holstein), rahm schnitzel (cream sauce, like Geo's sahnesose), and Jager schnitzel with "hunter's sauce".

Has anyone ever tried using a tortilla press to flatten meat? Does it work? Does it give you enough power?

I had this sudden flash of insight around 6:30 AM yesterday, when I probably woke my neighbors as I pounded out a piece of meat, because I just had to have chicken fried steak right then and there. It just got me wondering if there's a quieter, more dignified way of doing it. (I own neither a meat mallet nor a tortilla press, so I instead used a 26-oz can of tomatoes).

I've been pounding and eating a lot of cutlets the past few months...seasoned flour dredge, egg/milk wash, breadcrumbs, shallow frying and spooning hot oil over the top. I'm getting pretty close to something great, it's super crispy and not at all soggy or dense but still can't quite get that puffy fried look i'm going for. Is deep frying the key? what step am I missing? I probably would have pounded these even thinner If I could do it again.

Either way, squeeze of lemon and some heavily buttered/dilled potatoes and I'm good to go.

AlekH wrote:
Either way, squeeze of lemon and some heavily buttered/dilled potatoes and I'm good to go.

looks good - Ill have to try a few bites next time I have one with a squeeze of lemon - I grew up eating them with a little L & P Worstershire sauce.

thanks, jim

One of my favorite variants of schnitzel, probably just better simply called "breaded pork/veal tenderloin" involves substituting crushed saltines for the breadcrumbs in the flour-egg-breadcrumb dredge. It's definitely not "authentic" to Austro-German cooking, but it's darned good.

Hi,

I am not quite sure what you mean by puffy, though putting in a little baking powder might offer the puff you seek.

Regards,

One kitchen trick I learned when in the business was a mixture of AP flour with buttermilk pancake batter dry mix. We used about 3:1. Our breaded pork tenderloin, chicken, shoot...mushrooms...pretty much anything we tossed in the deep fryer was a matter of "dry-wet-dry". I think this may be the "puffy" you're looking for.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I am not quite sure what you mean by puffy, though putting in a little baking powder might offer the puff you seek.

Regards,

"Puffy" in a schnitzel means that the breading crust bubbles away from the meat underneath, creating a couple of air pockets between the meat and the crisp breading. I had read that having enough oil in the pan and spooning oil over the top while frying was a key to getting the puff.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi.

A friend receives every Christmas a box of meat parts. The cuts she doesn't like always end up in my freezer. This year's batch included four half-inch thick slices of pork tenderloin. In my household, a portion of one each and sharing the third would not be very satisfying. Alternatively, I could use a round as minced pork for Chinese eggplant or Szechuan green beans.

Yesterday I began to think of making schnitzel with those pork tenderloin pieces. This morning I called a retired friend who made a point of learning to make schnitzel this last year. He offered two tips: 1) Make sure the pounded pork is absolutely dry before dipping in flour; 2) Better to have more oil in the pan than less. If it comes up over the edges a bit, this was not a bad thing. I also found an enthusiastic article from the Los Angeles Times on Schnitzel's delicious simplicity.

I went over to youtube.com hoping to see the pounding technique, because I have almost never used my tenderizer hammer since I bought it years ago. It was something my Grandmother had in her kitchen, I had it just in case I needed it. I found an expertvillage series on making schnitzel, which was parsed to allow you to jump in where you needed information:

Preparing ingredients for schnitzel


This Chef used bread crumbs from a can. I don't keep this at home, though I had the means for fresh and dried bread crumbs. I finally found some comments that dried was preferred and fresh usable. I called my friend who also favored dried breadcrumbs. I used a dried piece of bread forgotten long before Christmas, which pulverized beautifully in a food processor.

Cutting a schnitzel cutlet


Tenderizing and flattening schnitzel


This was something I might have easily messed up without having this video to review.

Battering schnitzel


The LA Times article suggested allowing the breaded schnitzel to rest 15 minutes before frying to stabilize the crust.

Frying schnitzel


I used peanut oil for cooking these schnitzels. I did use his method of patting the oil off, before placing them on a rack to stay warm in the oven. The tenderloins remained crisp until we ate them.

Serving schnitzel


The last video clued me into serving schnitzel with German Potato Salad. I found a Home and Garden recipe on epicurious.com from February, 1957.

From all the advice, viewing and reading, I made a pretty good first effort making schnitzel and German potato salad. The German red cabbage was canned a long time ago. It was something when I initially made it, I wasn't thrilled. Trying it out today, I found the vinegar soften for a much better taste than what I last recalled. The color was a dismal brownish red.



Schnitzel was something I never saw at my Grandmother's home. Next time I want a pork tenderloin sandwich, I am not going to have travel far now. A piece of pork and some hamburger buns is all that is needed.

Regards,

My mom always used the flat side of a meat cleaver to flatten her schnitzel meat; learned that at the butcher shop where she worked.