Kotlety mielone: Polish minced pork cutlets, juicy inside, crisp outside
Cutlets from pork shoulder with a milk-soaked roll, fried onion and marjoram. The roll holds the juice, the onion adds sweetness, and a short covered fry at the end cooks the middle through without drying it. Eight cutlets: four dinners or one family one.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Roll soaking 10 min
- Mixture and shaping 15 min
- Frying 25 min
Step by step
0 / 6 done
Soak the roll
Tear the roll into pieces and cover with milk. Leave 10 minutes until completely soft, then squeeze lightly.
Ingredients: 700 g minced pork · 1 pcs stale white roll · 150 ml milk · 1 pcs onion · 20 g butter · 1 pcs egg · 1½ tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper · 1 tbsp dried marjoram · 1 clove garlic
TipThe roll isn't filler; it is a sponge for the juice. Cutlets without it are dense and dry.
A stale roll in milk
Soften the onion
Dice the onion finely and soften in butter over low heat, 5 minutes, until soft and beginning to colour. Cool.
TipRaw onion in cutlets stays hard and harsh. Fried, it is sweet and disappears into the meat.
Soft, lightly golden onion
Mix
Combine the meat with the squeezed roll, onion, egg, salt, pepper, marjoram rubbed between your palms and the crushed garlic. Knead by hand 3 minutes, until uniform and sticky. That is what keeps the cutlets from falling apart in the pan.
TipFry a tiny test cutlet and check the salt; don't taste the raw pork mixture. You can still add salt to the raw mixture, but not to a fried cutlet.
Kneaded, sticky mixture
Shape and coat
With wet hands shape 8 oval cutlets 2 cm thick. Coat in breadcrumbs, pressing gently.
Ingredients: 100 g breadcrumbs · 150 ml rapeseed oil
Oval, 2 cm, in breadcrumbs
Fry
Heat a layer of oil about 3 mm deep in a wide pan. Fry in two batches of 4 over medium heat 4 minutes until the underside is brown, turn, fry 3 minutes. Lower the heat, cover and leave 4 minutes more: the steam finishes the middle. A cutlet is done when it is no longer pink inside and the juices run clear (71 °C on a thermometer). Top up the oil before the second batch if needed.
TipDon't press the cutlets with the spatula. Squeezed-out juice is a dry cutlet.
Brown underside after 4 minutes
Drain and serve
Set on paper towel for a minute. With dill potatoes and beetroot salad, cucumber salad or coleslaw. Cold, on bread with mustard, they are a category of their own.
With potatoes and beetroot
Before you start
Which meat?
Pork shoulder at 20 % fat. Too lean (leg, loin) makes dry cutlets. Half and half with beef: a bolder flavour.
In the oven
Sear 2 minutes per side and finish 15 minutes at 180 °C, to 71 °C inside. Less fat, all at once.
Freezing
Raw, shaped, layered with paper, for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before frying and cook as fresh: a cutlet with a frozen centre burns outside before the middle is done.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
