When the semi-finished products are ready, the last step remains - the heat treatment.
At first glance, this is a very simple operation, but it happens that cutlets scatter, turning into a friable meat mass, or, burning on top, remain unroasted inside, or stick to a frying pan and have to be scraped off with a spatula.
How to fry cutlets in a pan - basic technological principles
There may be several reasons for such shortcomings. It is important to find them and eliminate them at the very initial stage of cooking fried cutlets, so as not to completely spoil your favorite dish.
Firstly, before frying cutlets in a pan, it would be very nice if, in case of uncertainty, the hostess conducts a little testing, especially when it comes to cooking cutlets according to a new recipe. Take a small portion of the cutlet mass, form a cutlet weighing 50-60 g, and fry it separately. In this case, it will be possible to identify any defects of the stuffing and eliminate them.
Here are the most common causes of failed cutlets and how to fix them:
If the meatballs crumble during frying, it was more likely that a mistake was made in the preparation of meat or fish cutlet mass: the minced meat was poorly knocked out, as a result of which collagen that binds the cutlet mass did not stand out enough. In this case, you need to beat the minced meat to the required consistency or add an egg to it and mix thoroughly. After repeated knocking out, the mass must be kept in the cold for at least an hour and then proceed to frying the cutlets.
If vegetable, cereal cutlets are scattered, where the binding component of the cutlet mass is egg white, starch, flour or other products, add the missing ingredients, mix the cutlet mass and wait until the gluten or protein fibers swell and the particles begin to bind.
Of course, for frying cutlets, you need to choose the right fat and the right cookware. First about fat. If deep-frying is necessary, then we definitely choose refined vegetable oil. It has no smell, and therefore the taste and aroma of cutlets during frying will not change. Smoke refined oil begins at temperatures above 200ºϹ, and for the preparation of cutlets, this temperature is quite enough. In natural vegetable oil (unrefined) at 110ºϹ, microparticles of the raw material from which this oil was obtained begin to burn. When heated, these particles begin to adhere to the semi-finished products, which in turn will adversely affect the taste of the finished dish.
If we are talking about poultry or fish cutlets, where the condition requires the use of butter, then you need to remember that it actually contains up to 82.5% fat ("Extra"), and the rest is milk components, and these are they they begin to stick and burn in a hot, heat-resistant cookware at a temperature of even less than 100ºϹ. How to fry cutlets in a pan in this case?
Options for solving this problem:
You can combine vegetable and butter. Start frying on one side with vegetable oil, and, turning the patties, put a small piece of butter under each semi-finished product so that it is absorbed directly into each patty, does not burn and creates the necessary taste of the product;
Use whey-free ghee, made exclusively of milk fat;
Another fallback is to use spread or margarine for frying cutlets.
Of course, choosing fat, you must consider the composition of the cutlets. For some vegetable semi-finished products, vegetable oil is definitely better: this, for example, applies to carrot semi-finished products. But potato or cabbage cutlets will be equally tasty if you use any of these fats to fry them. It’s just that the taste will be different, but it will only bring additional variety. For frying cutlets from pork and ground beef, pork fat is quite suitable.
A few words about the dishes. In a pan with a good Teflon coating, you can fry cutlets without the use of fat. If the pan is used correctly, according to the instructions, and there are no scratches on it, then sticking and burning the cutlets does not threaten. True, in this case, turning the patties on the other side, it is advisable to cover the pan with a lid, and continue to fry, while steaming them from the inside.
In the arsenal of every housewife there is a set of pans made of different material. You can figure out the diameter of the pan: it depends on the number of cutlets. It is better to fry vegetable semi-finished products in heavy frying pans, made of cast iron, since it is such a dish that allows you to get the necessary degree of fried products at the same time with an attractive appearance.
It should also be borne in mind that cast-iron cookware heats longer than conventional Teflon or ceramic pans, but it also, after heating, maintains a constant temperature for a long time, even after turning off the stove. This mode allows you to slowly monitor the heat treatment process. Smooth heating also provides better frying inside the semi-finished product, without burning the surface.
When using a frying pan with a thin wall, even with a Teflon coating, you need to constantly adjust the intensity of its heating, and to do this, add or reduce the temperature with the burner regulator. With high heat in such a pan, cutlets will quickly fry on top, remaining under-cooked inside. If the Teflon pan is weakly heated, the patties will be more likely to be stewed rather than fried, in which case a golden crust cannot be achieved.
Which of the two methods is more convenient is for the hostess to decide on the stove and pan, based on an assessment of her abilities and skills.
How much to fry cutlets in a pan? The answer is obvious: until complete readiness. But if without jokes, then the duration of the frying will depend on the product used - in each case, the time varies according to the density of the ingredients.
To begin with, cutlets are prepared both from whole pieces of meat or fish, and from minced meat from meat, poultry, fish, cereals and vegetables. The cooking time in each case depends on the composition of the cutlet mass, the temperature of the frying surface, and the humidity of the prepared meat.
First, all types of cutlets are fried on both sides, and brought to readiness on a lower heat, under a lid or in the oven. The thickness of the cutlets is also important for the duration of their heat treatment.
But in any case, meat and fish cakes must first be fried until a crust is obtained on both sides, and after that they should be steamed, for another 7-8 minutes. This is especially true for cutlets, which include pork minced meat. After pre-heat treatment in a frying pan, in the oven, the cutlets can be replenished, and they can be steamed in their own juice, or stewed by adding broth, water or a specially prepared sauce.
In each case, as a rule, the recipes indicate the temperature of frying, and how much to fry cutlets in a pan, although the popular and beloved dish sometimes does not require such detailed recommendations.
Recipe 1. Juicy Homemade Cutlets
Ingredients:
Fatty Pork (Pulp) 400 g
Veal, boneless 350 g
Onion 200 g
Bread, white 150 g
Milk 250 ml
Garlic 30 g
Salt
Egg 1 pc.
Ground pepper, black
Fat (for frying)
Cooking:
Soak brown bread in milk, mash with a fork - can be added to the meat grinder to twist along with the rest of the ingredients. Mix the cutlet mass well and, having covered, soak in the cold for at least half an hour. Form flat oval cutlets of 120-130 g.
First fry on high heat, for 1-2 minutes on each side, and then simmer, over medium or low heat, covered with a lid.
Recipe 2. Cabbage cutlets with cheese and mushrooms
Ingredients:
White cabbage, chopped 0.5 kg
Loaf, white (or crackers) 180 g
Garlic 20 g
Dry mushrooms, porcini (powder) 50 g
Cheese, hard 250 g
Salt
Sour cream 150 g
Ground pepper
Flour (for breading)
Ghee for frying
Cooking:
Chop the cabbage finely, grate the cheese (finely), combine the ground crackers and mushroom powder with sour cream. Salt the cabbage and add the chopped garlic, ground spices, slightly knead so that it releases the juice. After combining all the prepared components into the cutlet mass, mix. Semi-finished products must be formed immediately with hands moistened in water and then immediately fry at medium temperature, on preheated fat. Fry on each side for 2-3 minutes.
Recipe 3. Beef liver cutlets with buckwheat
Ingredients:
Buckwheat porridge 250 g
Egg 1 pc.
Spice
Liver 350 g
Onion 100 g
Salt
Garlic 15 g
Flour 70-80 g
Mayonnaise 50 g
Fat for frying
Cooking:
Boil 120 g of buckwheat in 350 ml of water. Porridge should not be crumbly. Grind the prepared slices of liver, garlic and onion with a blender or meat grinder. Combine the mass with porridge, add the rest of the ingredients, mix. If the cutlet mass is too thin, add more flour and let stand for 50-60 minutes. Spread the cutlet mass in the preheated fat with a spoon, like pancakes, and fry for 2-3 minutes on both sides.
Recipe 4. Chicken meatballs in sour cream sauce with parsley
Ingredients:
Chicken fillet 0.7 kg
Onion 150 g
Egg 1 pc.
Salt
White bread, stale 200 g
Milk 100 ml
Pepper
For the sauce:
Sour cream 10% 300 ml
Flour 50 g
Garlic 10 g
Chopped parsley
Spice
Cooking:
Grind bread, onion and chicken soaked in milk. Add spices, chopped garlic, egg and cook the cutlet mass. Soak it in the refrigerator and form balls 60-70 g each. Let them in hot oil, cover, for about 10 - 15 minutes. Combine sour cream with flour and spices. In thick sour cream, if necessary, add water. Pour the liquid into a skillet with skewers and simmer for another five minutes, cover, add greens, let the sauce boil and turn off the heat.
Recipe 5. Fish fillets of pollock fillet
Ingredients:
Lemon juice 50 ml
Onion 100 g
Pollock fillet 700 g
Egg 1 pc.
Butter 120 g
Bread 200 g
Breadcrumbs
Spice
Cooking:
Combine crushed bread with onions and fish, beaten in a blender, add lemon juice, egg and spices. Stuff the minced meat, add softened butter and beat out the mass. Cool and form flat round patties, breaded them in breadcrumbs, put on a dish, and put in the cold. It is better to deep-fry such cutlets so that the oil from the cutlet mass does not have time to leak into the pan.
How to fry meatballs in a pan - tricks and tips
The preparedness of meat cutlets can be checked by pressing the spatula or fork on the cutlet: if the transparent juice appears as a result of the pressure, then after 2-3 minutes of steaming, the cutlets can be removed from the heat.
If you monitor the amount of cholesterol that enters the body, then use only vegetable oil for frying, and it is better if it is olive, but not the first extraction. Although any fried is harmful enough, you need to try to reduce this harm to a minimum.
Do not use the same oil twice, because after you fry the meatballs in a pan, this oil turns into a toxic substance containing carcinogens. After frying the cutlets, the remaining oil should be discarded. In the best case, they can be used for other household purposes, but in no case should not be eaten.
In order for the patties to be juicy, it is not always necessary to use breadcrumbs. Juice provides protein or starch.
