Wiener schnitzel: veal pounded to four millimetres and a coating that lifts off the meat
A real Wiener schnitzel is veal beaten thin, to 4 mm, coated in dry breadcrumbs and fried in a generous layer of hot clarified butter. The coating is never pressed on and never left to stand: the schnitzel goes from the plate straight into the pan. Swirling the pan lets steam from the meat lift the crumbs into blisters and pull them away from the veal. Lemon, not a sauce.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Pounding 12 min
- Breading 10 min
- Frying 18 min
Step by step
0 / 7 donePound the veal to four millimetres
Sandwich each slice between two sheets of cling film and beat it with the flat side of a mallet, from the centre outwards, to 4 mm thick. The schnitzel should end up large, almost as wide as a plate, and evenly thin. Nick the sinew round the edge every 3 cm so the meat doesn't curl in the pan.
Ingredients: 600 g veal escalope · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp white pepper
TipThe toothed side of a mallet tears the fibres and punches holes the juices run out of. The flat side stretches, which is the point.
Flat side, centre outwards, down to 4 mmSet up three dishes
Line them up: flour, eggs beaten with a fork and dry, fine breadcrumbs. Put the potatoes on to boil and heat the fat before you start breading.
Ingredients: 80 g plain flour · 3 pcs eggs · 200 g breadcrumbs · 500 g clarified butter · 100 g lard
TipThe classic coating is flour, egg and breadcrumbs, nothing more. Some cooks beat a spoonful of cream into the eggs; you can, but you don't need to.
Flour, egg, dry breadcrumbsSalt and bread at the last moment
Season the schnitzels with salt and pepper on both sides only now. Turn in the flour and shake off the excess, draw through the egg, let it drip, lay in the crumbs and merely sprinkle the top, without pressing. Shake off the loose crumbs and go straight to the pan.
TipThe coating must never be pressed on or left waiting. Pressed, it clings to the meat; left standing, it soaks up moisture from the veal. Either way it will not blister.
Sprinkled, not pressed, straight to the panHeat the fat to 170 °C
In a wide pan heat the clarified butter (with the lard, if using), about 1 cm deep, to 170 °C. Without a thermometer: a crumb dropped in should sizzle briskly and float at once, but not brown within a second.
TipBelow 160 °C the coating drinks fat and turns heavy; above 180 °C it browns before the veal has set. Ordinary butter burns at this temperature, which is why only clarified butter or lard will do.
A centimetre of fat, 170 °CFry, swirling the pan
Slide in one schnitzel (two if the pan is very large) and swirl the pan continuously so the hot fat washes over the top of the coating. Fry 2 minutes, turn and fry another 1.5–2 minutes. The crust should be pale gold and domed, not brown. Fry the rest the same way; four schnitzels one after another take about 16 minutes in all.
TipThe swirling is the whole secret: hot fat above and below turns the moisture at the surface of the meat into steam, and the steam lifts the crumbs. A schnitzel that isn't swirled tastes fine but stays flat.
Fat washing over the top, the coating risingDrain on a rack
Move to a rack lined with paper towel and wait one minute. A rack, not a plate: on a plate the steam gathers underneath and softens the coating within half a minute. Don't cover it.
Rack, one minute, uncoveredServe with lemon
Drain the potatoes and toss with butter and chopped parsley. Schnitzel on the plate, a lemon wedge, potatoes beside. Eat at once: the blisters collapse within minutes. A Wiener schnitzel is served with no sauce: with lemon, and in Austria often with lingonberry preserve too.
Ingredients: 800 g potatoes · 40 g butter · 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley · 1 pcs lemon
Lemon, parsley potatoes, no sauce
Before you start
With pork
The same method on pork loin is Schnitzel Wiener Art, "in the Viennese manner". Pork is cheaper and forgives half a minute longer in the pan; in Austria the name "Wiener" is reserved for veal.
How much fat
The schnitzel should float in the fat, not lie in it. About 1 cm is the minimum, and more only helps; any shallower and the coating will not lift however much you swirl. Strain the cooled fat through a sieve and use it twice more.
The coating fell off
The meat was wet, breaded too early, or the crumbs were pressed on. Pat the veal dry, bread it just before frying, and only sprinkle the top.
