Juicy meatballs. Secrets of juicy cutlets

1. To make cutlets juicy
   Do you know why Soviet canteen cutlets were disgustingly tasteless? Because they put too much bread and crackers in them, and they saved on meat and took it from the hard parts of the carcass. If you want to get delicious cutlets, do not buy ready-made minced meat of dubious origin. Expensive beef tenderloin may not be purchased, but the back, neck, shoulder blade, brisket and some parts of the hind leg are ideal.

   Before as put the fillet in the meat grinder, do not forget to clean it thoroughly - remove the films, remove cartilage, bones and veins. In addition to beef, chefs recommend using fatty pork - it is she who will give cutlets juiciness and tenderness.

   Standard proportion: for 1 kg of beef - 1/2 kg of pork or for 1 kg of beef - 250 g of fat. However, cutlets can also be made from lamb, veal, chicken, turkey, game. Choose any degree of grinding, however, experts advise not to overdo it and limit yourself to a single scroll in a meat grinder with a medium-sized grate.
   

2. Should I add an egg?
   Of course it is. The main thing is not to overdo it with eggs and use no more than 2-3 pieces per 1 kg of meat, otherwise the cutlets will turn out tough. Onions for the same amount will require about 200 g, preferably pre-sauteed and chilled, since raw may not have time to fry and will give the cutlets a harsh taste. If you like fresh onion, chop it at the same time as minced meat in a meat grinder.
   
   
3. Bread is the most important ingredient
   Do not think that bread appeared in the recipe out of a desire to save money. Without the crumb, you get a kebab kebab, not a juicy meatball. Exactly soaked bread Helps make the meatballs softer and more tender.

   Naturally, it is important to maintain the correct proportion. It looks like this: for 1 kg of meat - 250 g of white bread and 300-400 g of milk or water (if you make chicken cutlets, you will need less bread and eggs).

   Use yesterday's or slightly dried loaf. Remove all crusts from it, cut into pieces and soak in cold milk or water. As soon as the crumb swells, carefully knead it with your hands and mix with the rest of the minced meat. Part of the bread can be replaced with grated potatoes, pumpkin or other vegetables.

   The resulting minced meat is also good to decorate with spices (paprika, black pepper, coriander, chili) and chopped herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro, mint). Do not forget to salt the future dish, but in no case try it raw (tasting minced meat is the most common cause of poisoning among housewives).
   
   

4. Correct breading
   It is advisable to cover the bowl with prepared minced meat with a film and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour so that the bread absorbs the meat juices. Then again carefully knead the mass, beating it with your hands and saturating it with air. At the very end, some chefs advise adding a handful of crushed ice for juiciness of the dish. After that, wet your hands in cold water and start sculpt cutlets.

   If desired, you can cover them with breading - under the golden crust, the minced meat will remain more juicy. Most experts do not trust store-bought breadcrumbs and recommend making them yourself - for this you just need to chop white bread in a blender. Then roll cutlets in the resulting crumbs and send them to the pan. As a breading, you can also use sesame seeds, small bread straws, flour and ice cream.

   The last one is 3 eggs lightly beaten with salt and 1-2 tbsp. tablespoons of milk or water. Cutlets are first rolled in flour, then in lezon and only then covered with breadcrumbs.
   
   

5. Frying Features
   IN frying cutlets there is nothing complicated, the main thing is to put them on a hot frying pan with hot butter (preferably melted butter) so that the minced meat “grabs”, a crust forms and the dish does not fall into pieces later.

   In addition, keep a distance between the cakes: if you place a mountain of cutlets on one dish, they will quickly release the juice and begin to stew, not fry.

   As soon as a golden crust appears, you can reduce the heat and cook under the lid. It is better not to torment the cutlets by frequent turning (it is advisable to do this a couple of times), but do not go far from the pan, otherwise you will get coals instead of a juicy meat dish. However, you can refuse to fry and stew the cakes or steam them.
   
   

Did you know that the cutlet is French? Of course, not in the banal form in which it often appears on our tables, but many, many decades ago, it came to us precisely from refined and sophisticated France. Then the "young lady" looked like a piece of juicy beef on the bone ("cotelette" translated into Russian means "rib" - it was this part of the carcass that was taken to cook the dish).

Over time, the Russian people began to transform the "French woman" to suit their tastes and ideas about beauty - they began to beat the meat, and years later they turned it into chopped meat. Removing, respectively, the bone. So the "foreign" fashionista became a Russian cutlet.

What do you make cutlets at home? Pork, beef, chicken, turkey? Still for sure fish, seafood, liver, mushrooms. Often there are recipes with cereals and vegetables. And, I'm sure, every housewife has her own secret of delicious cutlets.

I don't have any secrets. There are rules that I, of course, do not always follow, but if we are talking about cutlets from the category of "you can swallow your tongue", then I strictly observe them. Today we are talking about meatballs.

So here are ten tips for how to cook delicious meatballs.

1. Minced meat - only homemade. No purchase compromises, even if they are a thousand times proven quality.

2. Meat - quality. "Third grade - not a marriage" will do, but we will leave it for ordinary cutlets, everyday ones, and for a local culinary masterpiece, buy a good back of pork, veal tenderloin on the market. Pork is fatter, beef or veal is lean.

3. Minced meat - freshly prepared. Of course, you can get it out of the freezer and defrost it, you will also get cutlets in this version, no one argues, but we are talking about tasty and juicy cutlets, right? Then - we take out the meat grinder and twist the minced meat.

4. You can - cut. finely. As small as it gets. Meat fibers in this version do not choke on the circles-knives of the meat grinder, retaining more juice. But this advice, let's say, is from the category of theoretical ones, I don't have enough patience for such delights.

4. Bread. Necessarily. Thanks to him, the juice that stands out from the meat during frying remains in the cutlets, soaking into the bun. By the way, about the bun. Not necessarily - there are lovers of rye bread. I am a conservative: I take three or four slices of the day before yesterday's loaf (for 500 g of minced meat), cut off the crusts, pour milk (or low-fat cream - so that it was completely "ah!"). When the crumb gets wet, I squeeze the bread.

5. Egg. Do not add. It makes the minced meat more dense and firm. I don't like. It is usually taken to ensure that the cutlets do not fall apart during cooking, but to prevent such incidents, I have another secret hidden in my pocket, so I just don’t add it.

6. Other additives.

Onion. Necessary. It's juicy, it's flavorful. You can also add a few cloves of garlic. It's not for everyone, but we like it. You can have a lot of onions - some lovers, in the person of my husband, manage to stick quite nice cutlets, despite the fact that the share of onions is a third of the total minced meat. I can not do that. I limit myself to one large onion per pound of meat.

I twist the onion together with the meat in a meat grinder. Can be grated. Cutting is also possible, but I don’t like it when onion comrades meet in homogeneous minced meat.

If the meat is very lean, it is good to add a little bacon or other fat - again for the juiciness of the cutlets.

Vegetables - whatever you like. However, if we are talking about meat cutlets, then I recommend leaving pumpkin, carrots, zucchini, cabbage, potatoes and other useful things for the next serving.

Spices - I do not recognize anything but black pepper. But again, in the classic version. In general, you can add everything that, in your opinion, is combined with meat.

7. Knead. With diligence and care - this is a guarantee that the cutlets will be evenly juicy, tasty and very tasty in all places.

8. Repulse. Necessarily. A lot of. Gather the minced meat in your palms, raise your hands and forcefully throw the meat back into the bowl. So - at least 15 times. Better than 30. That's when none of your cutlets will fall apart during the frying process.

9. Butter or a piece of ice in the middle of the patty.

I think it's overkill. If the minced meat is of high quality, fresh and fatty enough, no oil-ice will make it even tastier, they will only add work. If you doubt that you are lucky to buy the "right" cutlet meat, bother with butter or ice.

We sculpt with hands moistened in water - so that it does not stick.

The right frying pan - with a thick bottom. Cast iron is perfect.

Breading - optional. My mood sometimes takes flour, sometimes semolina, sometimes crackers. And most often - without breading at all.

The oil is hot, the pan is clean. After each toasted batch, carefully remove any burns.

Fire - close to the minimum.

We fry on both sides. When pressed, the finished patties should ooze a little. On the cut - grayish. Not red, not pink.

I wish you good luck in cooking delicious meatballs and in addition I suggest you several proven recipes for delicious chops from zest:

Today I suggest you cook juicy and tasty meatballs. Which? Choose to your taste! I can offer you a step-by-step recipe for minced turkey, pork, chicken and pollock cutlets, with the addition of cabbage and potatoes, and even cutlets without bread. You can make it in a pan, or you can cook it in the oven. I decided to collect the most popular recipes in one place in order to spread out and organize the information a little, it’s convenient when everything is at hand.

Simple secrets of delicious and juicy meatballs.

But first, let's define what principles of cooking cutlets allow them to turn out juicy and tasty, regardless of the type of minced meat and accompanying spices. Perhaps these rules will seem banal and “old as the world” to experienced housewives, but not everyone is born “in a chef’s hat and apron” - young and beginners sometimes need to say simple things.

And not the fact that for them they seem so obvious!

• • Of course, you can make cutlets without bread .. But the question is - will this dish be called cutlets? Still, bread, which we pre-soak in water or milk, and then add to minced meat for cutlets, is an indispensable ingredient in almost any recipe for delicious homemade cutlets. And the point here is not to save on minced meat, as some people think! Bread allows you to make minced meat softer, juicier, tastier. But we are not talking about ready-made minced meat bought in a store (you will never guess what has already been added there!), but about pure minced meat, which you have just turned with your own hands from a natural piece of meat;
  • Water (milk, cream, mineral water) must be present in minced meat for cutlets. It is the moisture that makes the meatballs juicy and soft. The more fat component in this liquid, the tastier and more tender (but the more high-calorie our cutlets will be!). Water must be cooled to ice. The rule, again, is only suitable for freshly prepared natural minced meat, without additives from cunning manufacturers of "semi-finished products".
  • Not everyone knows that in addition to adding cold milk, ice water or even mineral water to minced meat, such minced meat must be beaten off. This is done very simply - as with dough, you scoop up the minced meat in a handful and throw it back into the bowl, so do it 15-20 times. The liquid is absorbed into the minced meat and the cutlets are very juicy. It would be nice to give the minced meat time to stand - about half an hour, or more;
  • It is for juiciness that cabbage, potatoes, onions are added to minced meat for cutlets. Moreover, you need to cut them very finely (do not turn through a meat grinder or in a blender, it is important to cut them finely and finely). Although there are certainly recipes where it is proposed to scroll these additives through a meat grinder or pass through a blender - it seems to me that here we are talking more about saving cooking time than about improving the taste of the dish;

And of course, the quality of the meat from which minced meat is made is very important for the quality of the final product. From old, dry, frozen or, God forbid, rancid meat, you can’t make delicious cutlets with any additives and “magic” ingredients ... Although the cooks of some school canteens would now argue with me ...

For these wonderful, juicy and tasty cutlets, we need minced turkey (turkey meat), as well as the following simple ingredients.

• turkey fillet (or any minced meat) - 1kg
• loaf (bread) - 150g
• milk - 150g
• egg - 1 pc.
• onion - 2 pcs
• salt, pepper - to taste
• sunflower oil for frying
• garlic - optional

1 If you make minced meat yourself, cut the turkey fillet into pieces and pass through a meat grinder. Some, to speed up the process, immediately turn the peeled onion, but if you finely chop the onion and add it to the prepared minced meat, the cutlets will turn out juicier. 2 Soak the bread in warm milk or water. Many people advise cutting off the crusts, but if you turn the meat through a meat grinder, then bread can be added there too - into the meat grinder, and the crusts will not interfere with us. If you add bread immediately to the finished minced meat, it is easier to knead it when there are no crusts. 3 When the turkey meat, onion and bread are already mixed in the minced meat, add one egg there, salt and pepper. Mix everything and beat the minced meat in the same way as they beat the dough, about a minute is enough - so our cutlets will not fall apart and spread in the pan, but will be strong, elastic and appetizing. 4 Place a frying pan on the stove, add a little vegetable oil and heat well. With wet hands, form a ball of minced meat with your hands, flatten it slightly on both sides, give it the desired shape - round or pie shape, and send it to a hot frying pan. You can roll the cutlets in breadcrumbs, flour or egg white, but you can do without it - the cutlets will already have a good shape, a beautiful golden roast and a delicious crispy crust. 1 Fry the cutlets on one side until golden brown, turn over and close the lid. Under the lid, the cutlets will steam and reach readiness. As soon as covered with a lid, reduce the heat to a minimum and watch for readiness. Usually, such cutlets are cooked on fire for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cutlets.

All! Delicious and juicy homemade turkey cutlets are ready! Bon appetit!

Very tender minced chicken cutlets - let's discover the secret of amazing juiciness.

In principle, you can easily take the previous recipe, replace the minced turkey with chicken in it and cook delicious chicken cutlets. But we will go the other way! Let's add delicious foods to our list of ingredients and improve the taste even more drastically!

See what products we need, prepare, and let's go cook, get acquainted with the new secrets of juicy minced meat for cutlets.

Compound:

• Minced chicken - 500 g
• White bread - 3 slices
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Egg - 1 pc.
• Cream 35% - 4 tablespoons
• Milk - 100 ml
• Butter - 70 g
• Salt, black pepper to taste
• For breading - dry breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs or flour

1 You can take the minced meat ready-made (of good quality, without unnecessary additives), or you can cook it yourself from any parts of the chicken, even from the breast - our cutlets will not be dry anyway - we know the secret 🙂 2 Cut the crusts off the bread, cut it into cubes and soak in warm milk. Cut the onion and garlic as finely as possible and add to the minced chicken. 3 Add the egg, soaked bread, squeezed milk, salt, pepper. Let's mix everything. Add cold cream and carefully, best of all - with handles, knead the minced chicken until smooth. 4 Now let's take our main "secret" ingredient, which will provide our minced chicken with special juiciness and splendor - frozen butter. We rub it on a coarse grater into minced meat, mix quickly (until it melts!) And quickly proceed to frying. By the way, these cutlets must be fried on low heat, then the oil inside will be distributed over the minced meat as needed, evenly, and will not leak out. 5 We put the pan with oil on heat, and while it is heating, we form cutlets of the shape we need. To make them as beautiful as in the photo, roll them in breadcrumbs or dry bread crumbs. But you can just in flour. 6 We fry our chicken cutlets on both sides and, what is important for this recipe, do not close the lid!

Delicious and tender chicken cutlets are ready. Serve them with any salad, greens, vegetables or any other kind of side dish - they will not become less tasty :-))

Minced pork cutlets with cabbage - "Lazy cabbage rolls".

Pork tastes great with cabbage, so for the so-called "lazy cabbage rolls", and in fact - minced meat cutlets with cabbage, we will choose it. Pork, as a rule, is quite fatty in composition, therefore, we “dilute” it with lean cabbage and in total we get the very thing 🙂 In proportion, we take minced pork and cabbage in equal parts.

I suggest you make this recipe not only “lazy”, but also fast - we will grind all our additives with a blender to a mushy state.

To roll the cutlets, we will take cornmeal - then we will get a beautiful yellow tint of our cutlets, look how they look in the photo. If there is no such flour, but there is corn grits, grind it in a coffee grinder or blender to get the necessary product.

We take the following products:

• minced pork - 300g
• cabbage - 300g
• onion - 1 head
• egg - 1 pc
• seasonings and salt - to taste
• cornmeal - for breading vegetable oil - for frying

Cooking process:

1 Prepare everything in the usual way. The only difference in this recipe is that we chop the onion and cabbage in a blender. Squeeze out excess juice from cabbage after chopping. Crack the egg into the onion before chopping. 2 Salt, pepper the minced meat, knead thoroughly. We form cutlets, roll in cornmeal and spread on a hot, with oil, frying pan. Lay out carefully, because. minced meat turns out to be tender not only in taste, but also in texture - until the cutlets are fried, they do not hold their shape very confidently. 3 It is better not to close the lid. When browned on both sides - consider that it is ready. Pork cutlets with cabbage according to this recipe are very soft and tasty!

Minced meat patties with potatoes - video recipe.

Do you think that bread, cabbage, housewife potatoes are added to minced meat to save money? So you haven’t tried real minced meat patties with potatoes - it’s oh-oh-very tasty!

Compound:

• minced meat - 1 kg.
• raw potatoes - 4 pcs. (average)
• onions - 1-2 pcs.
• egg - 1 pc
• seasonings and salt - to taste
• cold water - 2-3 tablespoons

But the essence of cooking does not change! This recipe differs from the previous one only in that raw cabbage must be replaced with raw potatoes, grated on a fine grater. I won’t even describe the rest - do everything in the same way, I’ll just indicate the possible proportions of the products.

But, if suddenly something hasn’t worked out yet, watch this short video, which shows step by step the process of cooking these particular cutlets - with potatoes and minced meat.

Mixed minced meat cutlets in the oven - a step-by-step recipe with detailed photos.

I can’t get past such a recipe as minced meat patties baked in the oven. For those who do not really like fatty foods (and it must be admitted that cutlets fried in a pan are a rather high-calorie dish with a lot of fat and a “bad” cholesterol crust) – cutlets in the oven will be a great substitute. They are still very tasty and juicy, look very appetizing, and even save the hostess not only oil, but also time. After all, you don’t need to stand by the stove - just load everything into the oven, set the temperature and note the time.

Compound:

• minced meat - 1 kg. (chicken - 700 g and pork + beef - 300 g),
• white bread (crumb) - 1 slice,
• onion - 150 g.,
• potatoes - 150 g.,
• garlic - 1 tooth,
• egg - 1 pc.,
• salt, pepper - to taste,
• kefir (sour cream, cream) - 1 tbsp,
• vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.
• water - 0.5 + 0.5 cups.

The process of cooking cutlets in the oven:

1 Piece of white bread (it is better to cut off the crusts) pour about half a glass of cold water. While the bread is soaking, take the garlic and onion, peeled, and scroll briefly in a blender. Soaked bread, without squeezing from the water, add to the onion and mix everything again with a blender.
2 Minced meat in this recipe is taken in the following proportions - chicken - almost 2/3 of the volume, and pork and beef - equally, 1/3 of the total volume. But you can use more pork if you want to get more fat, in general, choose the proportions to your taste. 3 Finely grate the potatoes and add to the minced meat. I squeeze the potatoes a little to remove excess starch, but you don't have to.
4 Add the onion mixture here, break the egg. Add salt and black pepper to taste. For juiciness, add a little kefir (you can add milk, sour cream). We mix the minced meat thoroughly and beat it off so that our cutlets do not fall apart and are as juicy and lush as possible. This is a very important stage in the preparation of minced meat for any cutlets.

5 Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper and brush with a little sunflower oil. We form cutlets and put them on a sheet. At the same time, you can additionally beat off the minced meat, transferring the cutlet from one palm to another. You can roll cutlets in breading or in flour.
6 Send to a hot oven (190-200 degrees) for 20 minutes. For juiciness, add half a glass of hot water directly to the leaf and put it back in the oven until a golden crust appears. Do not flip the patties during baking.

Here we have such beautiful and moderately diet cutlets. This is a very simple and quick way to cook delicious and juicy meatballs - be sure to try this cooking option.

Pollack fish cutlets without bread - Not only tasty, but also healthy!

Continuing the theme of a healthier diet, I want to offer you a wonderful recipe for fish cakes - pollock minced meatballs. Pollock is an excellent choice for fish cakes: it is not an expensive type of fish, but it has few bones, you do not need to clean the scales, and as for the beneficial properties (contents of vitamins A, B1, B2, B9, minerals and trace elements) - in no way inferior to expensive fish varieties.

The only complaint about pollock is that minced meat can turn out a little dry.For those who do not have enough fat content, you can scroll an additional piece of lard into the minced meat or add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the minced meat. For fish cakes, it is generally typical to take low-fat varieties of white fish, but at the same time - to raise the fat content with separate additives.

By the way, another original and “tasty” way to add fat to dry fish (and not only fish) minced meat. Right in the pan, put a piece of frozen butter into the already prepared cutlets, press it so that it is inside the minced meat. During cooking, the butter will melt and give a great creamy taste to the dish!

But, if we talk about the benefits of such a product as fish cakes (and this is a dietary dish by all standards!), Then nothing needs to be added, no additional fats are required. This recipe also provides for a small amount of oil in the pan and the absence of bread and flour in the cutlets.

If there is no special dish with a non-stick coating, on which you can fry almost without oil, you can cook such cutlets in the oven, you can steam it, this is how you like it.

I still like the cutlets to look more browned, a small, lightly fried crust will not hurt, the main thing is to cook on a very moderate heat and with a small amount of oil.

Compound:

• minced pollock - 1.3 kg.
• onion - 3 pcs.medium size
• potatoes - 3 pcs.
• garlic - 3 cloves
• egg - 3 pcs.
• salt, pepper, spices - to taste

Step by step recipe for pollock cutlets:

1 Scroll pollock fillets and peeled potatoes through a meat grinder. It is better not to scroll the onion, as all its juice will go into the liquid, which we squeeze out during the cooking process. All onion juice will go nowhere! It is better to finely cut the onion with a knife - this way it will be preserved in our fish cakes with both juiciness and taste. 2 Mix minced pollock, potatoes, chopped onions, eggs, garlic and seasonings. Please note that we cook these cutlets without bread! We mix everything thoroughly. 3 Minced meat comes out very raw. To prevent the cutlets from falling apart too much, squeeze out the excess liquid into a separate bowl when forming the cutlets. Here, the juiciness of cutlets will be given to us by pieces of potatoes and pieces of onion. But, in order to reduce the excessive separation of moisture, it is necessary, as in previous recipes, to stir the minced meat for a long time and thoroughly before frying, also beating it, throwing it into a bowl. So we will improve the bonding of minced meat with the egg and create a greater “stickiness”, the cutlets will not fall apart much. 4 We do not bread cutlets so as not to add flour to our diet recipe. But you can roll the cutlets in breadcrumbs or flour if you wish.

5 Fry in a small amount of oil, without a lid, over low heat until golden brown, turning during cooking. Fish cutlets cook very quickly. But you can still further steam them after roasting under the lid, adding a little water.

Let me remind you that in this recipe, in order to benefit and increase the “dietary” nature of our dish, we completely excluded bread. But according to tradition, in the classic recipe for fish cakes, bread is necessarily added, and, in fish cakes, bread, as a rule, is soaked in milk, and not in water. Still, fish cakes require more gentle handling 🙂

What kind of meatballs do you cook? What type of minced meat and additives to it do you prefer? Share your lucky finds and favorite recipes for minced meat patties in the comments!

Products from twisted minced meat with various additives from bread, flour, eggs and vegetables, fried in a pan in vegetable oil, steamed or baked in the oven are called cutlets. There are also many recipes for vegetable, mushroom, fish and offal cutlets.

Each housewife can cook airy, tasty and mouth-watering cutlets using a different set of products available in the house. There is a whole list of general recommendations from experienced chefs to make finished products as juicy as possible.

1. It has long been noticed that the more number of meats used to prepare minced meat, the tastier the finished dish is. Most often, it is recommended to cook cutlets from three types of meat. Combinations can be very diverse, for example, turkey + chicken + lard, beef + pork + lamb, veal + pork neck + chicken, etc.

2. Exists two secrets to increase the juiciness of cutlets:

• Add lard to any minced meat.
• When forming cutlets, place a small piece of butter in the middle of each, preferably homemade.

3. The classic recipe for cutlets involves the use of bread, as it helps to better preserve the juice inside the finished product. Experienced housewives try use crackers pre-soaked in boiled water or whole milk. This is done in order to remove as much gluten from the bread as possible.

4. Instead of bread, you can use semolina, at the rate of a tablespoon of semolina for every half a kilo of minced meat. The only condition is that cutlets can be formed from minced meat with cereals not immediately, but after 20-30 minutes, so that the semolina swells with high quality. And you can add boiled buckwheat instead of semolina, you get original ones.

5. Adds extra juiciness to cutlets onion juice. Add onions to the minced meat, twisting it through a meat grinder along with the meat.

6. Gives a special piquancy and tenderness to finished products in advance fried onion in corn oil. Divide the onion provided by the recipe into 2 parts, twist one of which into minced meat, and fry the other.

9. Besides table salt sugar is added to the minced meat, based on: a teaspoon for every half a kilo. It is sugar that makes ready-made cutlets more juicy and appetizing.

10. For a quality bunch of minced meat, an egg is used, however, it is believed that the protein gives the finished cutlets excessive rigidity. To prevent this, there is little secret- first add the yolk to the minced meat, and at the very end of kneading the whipped egg white, and your products will turn out to be more magnificent and delicate in taste.

11. Most housewives minced meat by throwing it on the work surface of the table or in a bowl for kneading. This simple manipulation allows you to make cutlets more tender and juicy. The same effect can be achieved by longer kneading minced meat (at least 10 minutes).

12. It is best to use corn oil for frying meatballs., which, according to scientists, is the most resistant to high temperatures. Never fry cutlets on linseed and, as they do not withstand heat and release a large amount of carcinogenic compounds at high temperatures.

13. Cutlets are better breadcrumbs, which create a tougher crust than flour, keeping the delicious juice inside the products as much as possible.

14. Lay out formed and breaded products in a well-heated skillet to immediately form an appetizing crust, and fry over medium heat.

16. After you have turned the cutlets, turn down the fire, and at the end of frying, cover the pan with a lid. Such a simple manipulation will allow them to “rise”, add juiciness and tenderness.

17. If you are cooking cutlets from tough old meat, then at the end of frying pour some broth or water into the pan, cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

18. Serve hot meatballs, piping hot. Do not fry the entire portion of the cooked minced meat at once. It is better to put some of it in the refrigerator and fry for the next meal in order to pamper your household with fresh cutlets, as they say, only from the pan.

Meat and cream - a great combination

A city dweller rarely buys fresh meat, from which absolutely all dishes are delicious. Most often, housewives living in megacities, even cutlets are prepared from frozen minced meat. And how then to achieve their tenderness and juiciness? Quite difficult, but with the possession of some gastronomic secrets - it is quite possible.

Noteworthy hint

Let's say that the chef has only a chicken breast, which has lain in the freezer for two weeks, but there is high-quality cream. Thanks to them, cutlets can not only be saved, but also made delicious.

The meat needs to be ground, and a slice of wheat bun should be immersed in the cream, and always with a crust. When the bread is completely soaked, all of the above must be mixed.

It remains to add a handful of any chopped greens, a pinch of salty seasoning with hot pepper and sweet paprika to the prepared semi-finished product, and meat balls can be formed, although the shape is usually chosen according to preference.

Creamy chicken cutlets are fried practically in their own juice - it will stand out plentifully, as soon as the thick-bottomed pan is covered with a lid.

Roast Alternative

A great way to improve the taste of meatballs from low-fat minced meat is to saturate them with creamy steam, then they will definitely melt in the mouth of a gourmet. The technology is simple:

1. Pour 30% cream into a cast-iron brazier, boil.
2. Dip cutlets in them (do not need to bread); cover the dishes.
3. Reduce burner flame to minimum.
4. Without adding fire, simmer the products until evaporated, but in fact - until the liquid is absorbed. By the way, already in the fifth or sixth minute, it will cease to be white, like milk, but will turn into a kind of light, cloudy broth. This is the correct metamorphosis, as it should be.

These chopped cutlets are unlikely to retain their ideal outlines, because they have not been in hot oil. However, in this case, the configuration is secondary, the main thing is the taste palette. It will turn out to be flawless. Whoever doubts, let him rise to the stove and put into practice the advice given here. After the tasting, he exclaims: "Meat and cream - the perfect tandem!"

Meat

It is better to make minced meat for cutlets yourself from chilled non-lean meat. An almost classic option is a mixture of beef and pork in a 2: 1 ratio. Purely pork cutlets can turn out to be very fatty, and beef cutlets may not be juicy enough.

You can also add chicken, turkey to cutlets or cook them only from poultry.

Fish

For cutlets, in principle, any fish is suitable. The main thing is that there are few bones in it. Therefore, it is better to choose fillets of large breeds: it is much easier to cook cutlets from it than from small bony fish. Ideal for salmon, cod, halibut, halibut.

Other Ingredients

Onion. It must be passed with meat through a meat grinder or finely chopped (in this case it is better to fry and cool a little), and then add to. You can, of course, chop the onion with a fine grater, but this process is a very dubious pleasure.

For 1 kg of meat, 2-3 medium onions are enough.

Stale white bread (baton). It is needed so that the cutlets keep their shape and are more tender. Bread must be soaked in boiled water, milk or cream, squeezed, remove the crust and pass through a meat grinder. Too much of it is not required: 100–200 g per 1 kg of minced meat is enough.

Vegetables: zucchini, carrots, potatoes, beets, pumpkin. They make the cutlets more juicy and tender. They can be substituted for bread if desired. Vegetables are best chopped with a grater.

Eggs. Controversial Ingredient: Some cooks think they make patties tough. However, the eggs help to stick the stuffing together. In order not to overdo it, it is better to use no more than two eggs per 1 kg of minced meat.

Salt. About 1 teaspoon of salt is enough for 1 kg of minced meat.

Spices and herbs. Be sure to add black pepper, garlic and other spices - if desired.

Water, oil, etc. You can add a couple of tablespoons of ice water, a spoonful of vegetable oil or a cube of butter to minced meat to make the cutlets more juicy.

Cream can be added to fish cutlets, which will add tenderness to the dish, or lemon juice, which enhances the taste of fish.

How to prepare minced meat and mold cutlets

1. Before chopping meat, remove all veins, films, bones and cartilage from it.
2. If you pass all the ingredients through a meat grinder, try to alternate them so that the minced meat is more uniform.
3. Minced meat must be kneaded well with your hands and beat off - so it will be saturated with oxygen. You can do this in a pot with high walls so as not to stain the kitchen. In this case, you need to throw the minced meat to the bottom of the container several times.
4. It is better to cover the finished minced meat with cling film and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so that it rests. After that, it should be mixed again.
5. You need to sculpt cutlets with wet hands so that minced meat does not stick to your fingers.
6. Try to form cutlets of the same size, do not grind too much: the larger the cutlets, the juicier they are. Pat the patties with your palms so that they are smooth and without seams.

kitchenmag.ru

How to bread cutlets

Breading helps the juice stay inside the cutlets, so you should not neglect it. You can use breadcrumbs (store-bought or homemade from dry bread), flour, crushed nuts and sesame seeds.

Keep in mind that crackers absorb more oil. Therefore, if you want to reduce the fat content of the patties, choose other breading options or dry the finished patties with paper towels.

How to fry meatballs

Put the cutlets in a well-heated pan with oil. Be sure to leave a distance between them, otherwise they will not be fried, but stewed.

First, fry one side over high heat for 1-2 minutes, then lower the heat and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes. Repeat the same with the other side. After that, you can sweat the cutlets under the lid for 5-8 minutes.

20 minutes is enough for frying any meatballs. If in doubt, pierce one of them with a knife: light juice indicates that the dish is ready.

How to cook meatballs in the oven

Put the cutlets on a greased baking sheet and put in the oven, preheated to 180-200 degrees. After 15-20 minutes, pour half a glass of water onto a baking sheet and bake the cutlets for another 10-15 minutes.

In the oven, you can also bring fried cutlets to readiness. In this case, it is better to bake them at a temperature of 160-180 degrees.

How to cook cutlets in a slow cooker

For cooking in the "Frying" or "Baking" modes are suitable. The average cooking time is 40–50 minutes.

Cutlets should be turned every 15-20 minutes. If they start to burn, you can add a little water (about ¼ cup).

Preparing a dish in a double boiler is the easiest. You just need to pour the amount of water indicated in the instructions inside, put the cutlets, turn on the appliance and cook depending on the minced meat:

• 20–30 minutes - for poultry and fish cutlets;
• 30–40 minutes - for meat cutlets.

If you do not have a double boiler, cutlets can be cooked in a water bath. To do this, boil water in a saucepan, put a large sieve on top so that it does not touch the liquid, and cover the structure with a lid. Please note that in this case, the pan and sieve should be approximately the same diameter.

kitchenmag.ru

Recipes

magput.ru

Ingredients

• 750 g chicken pulp (equal parts of breast fillet and thigh fillet);
• 350 g stale loaf;
• 220 ml of milk;
• 30 g butter;
• 2 eggs;
• 1 teaspoon of salt;
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper;
• ghee or butter - for frying.

Cooking

Soak 150 g of a loaf in milk. When it swells, squeeze it out and pass it along with the chicken pulp through a meat grinder. Do not throw out the milk: it will still come in handy. Add 30 g of soft butter, salt and pepper to the minced meat, mix well and set aside.

Separately, prepare the breading mixture. To do this, cut the remaining 200 g of a loaf into small cubes (with sides of about 4 mm) and dry them. Add eggs, a pinch of salt to a bowl of milk and stir.

With wet hands, shape the minced meat into medium sized patties. Dip each in the milk mixture, then roll in breadcrumbs and place in a well-heated pan with butter. Fry the patties over moderate heat on both sides until golden brown.

mirblud.ru

Ingredients

• 300 g of beef;
• 200 g pork;
• 150–200 g of fresh champignons;
• 1 onion;
• 1 egg;
• 2 slices of stale white bread;
• 1-2 cloves of garlic;
• flour - for breading;
• - for frying;
• salt, pepper and other spices - to taste.

Cooking

First prepare the mushroom filling. To do this, thoroughly rinse and dry the mushrooms, and then cut them into small slices. Finely chop the onion, fry until soft. Add mushrooms and sauté until all the water has boiled away. At the end, salt and pepper the filling and let it cool.

While the filling is cooling, you can cook minced meat. Pass the meat through a meat grinder, add bread soaked in water (without crusts), an egg and chopped garlic to it. Stir the minced meat until smooth, add salt and spices, mix again and beat with your hands. You can cool the minced meat in the refrigerator, but do not forget to mix it again after that and beat it off.

With wet hands, form the minced meat into a flat cake. Put the mushroom stuffing in the middle. Cover it with a new tortilla of minced meat and make a round cutlet. Try to make sure that the filling does not come out of the minced meat, and the cutlet itself is even, without seams.

Dip the cutlets in flour and place in a frying pan heated with oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown (as described above) and bring to readiness over minimal heat under the lid.

womensgroup.ru

Ingredients

• 700 g cod fillet;
• 1 onion;
• 2 eggs;
• 9 tablespoons of oatmeal;
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley;
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice;
• salt and ground pepper - to taste;
• 100 g butter;
• vegetable oil - for frying.

Cooking

Pass the cod fillet and onion through a meat grinder. Add greens, 3 tablespoons of oatmeal, lemon juice, salt, pepper to the minced meat. Mix everything and leave for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cool and cut into cubes. Add eggs to minced meat and mix.

Grind 6 tablespoons of oatmeal in a coffee grinder or blender: they will be needed for breading cutlets. With wet hands, make a cake out of minced meat, put a teaspoon of butter in the center and form a cutlet.

Roll cutlets in crushed oatmeal, fry in vegetable oil until golden brown and immediately transfer to a baking dish. Send it to the oven preheated to 180 degrees and bake for 10-15 minutes.