Home recipe kuchnia polska

Kotlety mielone

Name: Kotlety mielone
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 60 min
Cuisine: kuchnia polska
Ingredients: 500 g mielona łopatka wieprzowa (albo karkówka, zmielona na średnich oczkach); 40 g czerstwa kajzerka (pół bułki); 100 ml mleko (do namoczenia bułki); 1 pc jajko (rozmiar M); 150 g cebula (1 średnia, drobno posiekana); 10 g masło (do zeszklenia cebuli); 1 clove czosnek (mały, niekoniecznie); 1 tsp sól (około 6 g); ½ tsp pieprz czarny mielony; 1 tbsp majeranek suszony (płaska, około 2 g); 2 tbsp zimna woda (do 3 łyżek, tylko jeśli masa jest zbyt zwarta); 30 g bułka tarta; 40 g smalec (albo 3 łyżki oleju rzepakowego); 1 kg ziemniaki (ugotowane, z koperkiem i masłem); buraczki zasmażane albo mizeria

Homemade minced pork cutlets made from pork shoulder with soaked bread, sautéed onion, and marjoram, in a thin coating, served with potatoes and cucumber salad or sautéed beets. Tips on how not to dry out the cutlets, how to freeze them, and what meat to buy abroad.

Servings: 4 servings
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 1 h
Difficulty: Easy

Dwa panierowane kotlety mielone z ziemniakami z koperkiem i mizerią na białym talerzu

The story behind the recipe

Polish Wikipedia describes kotlet mielony as "a dish most often made from minced raw pork neck with the addition of a raw egg and breadcrumbs," seasoned with salt and pepper, sometimes with sautéed onion or garlic. Instead of breadcrumbs, you can use stale bread soaked in water or milk. The cutlets have an oval shape, are sometimes breaded, and are fried in oil or lard. This is a typical everyday or Sunday dinner, served with potatoes and a salad. However, the entry has only one source, Ewa Aszkiewicz's book "Polish Cuisine. 1001 Recipes" from 2004.

Names vary. In southern Małopolska, minced cutlet is called sznycel, and a rectangular version with croutons in the mixture is called sznycel ministerialny. In Silesia, they are called karminadle: small, round, flattened cutlets made from pork or a mix of pork and beef, often from rabbit in the past. According to English Wikipedia, karminadle were once eaten only on special occasions, but today they are a daily dish.

When and how kotlet mielony made its way into Polish cuisine is not definitively known: we have not found a reliable, dated source. The Polonist service states that similar minced meat cutlets have appeared in Polish cookbooks since the 19th century as sznycle, karminadle, and frykadele. In the PRL, kotlet mielony was a way to use up meat scraps and earned the nickname "weekly review," and it was served alongside pork chops in milk bars. It has close relatives throughout Central Europe: Austrian Faschierte Laibchen, German Frikadellen and Buletten, Hungarian fasírt, and Slovak fašírka.

Ingredients

Masa (8 kotletów)

500 g mielona łopatka wieprzowa (albo karkówka, zmielona na średnich oczkach)
Abroad: USA i Kanada: ground pork shoulder (pork butt); Wielka Brytania: pork mince; Niemcy: Schweinehackfleisch
40 g czerstwa kajzerka (pół bułki)
Abroad: USA: Kaiser roll albo biały chleb bez skórki; Wielka Brytania: white bread roll; Niemcy: Brötchen albo Semmel
100 ml mleko (do namoczenia bułki)
1 pc jajko (rozmiar M)
150 g cebula (1 średnia, drobno posiekana)
10 g masło (do zeszklenia cebuli)
1 clove czosnek (mały, niekoniecznie)
1 tsp sól (około 6 g)
½ tsp (2.5 ml) pieprz czarny mielony
1 tbsp majeranek suszony (płaska, około 2 g)
Abroad: dried marjoram; Niemcy: Majoran
2 tbsp (30 ml) zimna woda (do 3 łyżek, tylko jeśli masa jest zbyt zwarta)

Panierka i smażenie

30 g bułka tarta
Abroad: plain dried breadcrumbs; Niemcy: Paniermehl albo Semmelbrösel
40 g smalec (albo 3 łyżki oleju rzepakowego)
Abroad: lard; Niemcy: Schweineschmalz; olej: canola oil, rapeseed oil, Rapsöl

Do podania

1 kg ziemniaki (ugotowane, z koperkiem i masłem)
buraczki zasmażane albo mizeria

Method, step by step

Soak the bread in milk until it is completely soft, including the inside: there should be no dry lumps left. Then squeeze it out well in your hands.
Finely chop the onion and sauté it slowly in butter over medium heat for 10–15 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool completely.
In a large bowl, combine the meat, squeezed bread, egg, cooled onion, pressed garlic, salt, pepper, and marjoram crushed between your fingers.
Knead the mixture by hand for at least 5 minutes until smooth and uniform. The longer you knead, the better the cutlets. If the mixture is too stiff, add a tablespoon of cold water at a time until it stops sticking to your hands.
With damp hands, divide the mixture into 8 balls of 85–95 g each and flatten them into oval cutlets. Make them a bit thinner than you want, as they will shrink while frying. Press any pieces of onion that stick out back into the center.
Coat the cutlets in a thin layer of breadcrumbs and press it lightly with your hand. Shake off the excess.
In a heavy pan, heat the lard well so that it covers the bottom. Place the cutlets in the pan, not too tightly, and fry over high heat until the bottom is golden.
Flip the cutlets, reduce the heat to medium, and fry for a few more minutes until both sides are browned. If they are browning too quickly, lower the heat or cover the pan for 3–4 minutes. You can also transfer them to an oven preheated to 150 °C for 15 minutes.
Cut the thickest cutlet in half: it should be evenly gray inside, with no pink center. Drain the finished cutlets on paper towels.
Serve immediately with potatoes with dill and butter, along with cucumber salad or sautéed beets.

Tips

Dry cutlets. They are often overcooked or the meat was too lean. Use pork shoulder or neck, not lean ham, and remove the cutlets from the heat when they are evenly gray inside. Kwestia Smaku finishes them in the oven at 150 °C for 15 minutes, uncovered, to avoid overcooking them in the pan.

Too little fat. Kwestia Smaku warns: "If we use too little fat, most will be absorbed into the meat." The fat should cover the bottom of the pan and be well heated before adding the cutlets.

Tough, rubbery cutlets. Too much egg. Polonist suggests about one egg for 450 g of meat. Kwestia Smaku mixes the mass with a bit of cold water: the mixture looks loose, but the cutlets turn out tender.

The mixture is too loose and the cutlets fall apart. Add 1–2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs (Ania Gotuje) and squeeze the soaked bread well.

Burned on the outside, raw inside. The heat was too high. Lower it after flipping the cutlets or finish them in the oven.

Coating. A thin layer of good breadcrumbs is enough. Ania Gotuje notes that poor breadcrumbs look "like fine semolina and burn quickly in the pan."

Sautéed or raw onion. Most recipes (Ania Gotuje, Polonist, eglos.pl) add onion that has been sautéed until golden and cooled, which is sweeter. Kwestia Smaku grates it raw, which gives the cutlets more juice. Both methods are good.

Meat from the tray. Pre-ground meat from the supermarket is usually less flavorful than meat ground fresh by your butcher. Polonist suggests adding a bit of mustard to the mixture.

What to serve with. Classically with potatoes with dill or mashed potatoes, with cucumber salad or sautéed beets. Ania Gotuje also serves them with kopytka, Silesian dumplings, buckwheat, pearl barley, and salads. Cold, sliced, they taste great on a sandwich.

Variations. After 5 minutes of sautéing the onion, you can add mushrooms (Ania Gotuje). The cutlets can be made from turkey, veal, or chicken. Without egg: instead, use a teaspoon of potato flour and a small, boiled, mashed potato (Ania Gotuje).

Storage. In the fridge, in a closed container, for 3–4 days (Polonist). Fried and cooled cutlets can be frozen and taken out as needed (Kwestia Smaku). Polonist recommends keeping them in zip-lock bags for up to 3 months and thawing overnight. Reheat in a pan over low heat with a bit of fat and a tablespoon of water, covered, or in the oven at 180 °C covered for 12–18 minutes.

Abroad. Pork shoulder is pork shoulder or pork butt (Boston butt) in the USA and Canada, pork shoulder in the UK, and Schweineschulter or Schweinenacken in Germany. You can also buy pre-ground meat: ground pork in the USA, pork mince in the UK and Australia, Schweinehackfleisch in Germany. Instead of a kajzerka, use a regular white roll or slices of white bread without crust: Kaiser roll in the USA, white bread roll in the UK, Brötchen or Semmel in Germany. Breadcrumbs are plain dried breadcrumbs, and in Germany, they are Paniermehl or Semmelbrösel; avoid seasoned breadcrumbs. Marjoram is dried marjoram, and in Germany, it is Majoran. Lard is Schweineschmalz in Germany; oil is canola oil in the USA and Canada, rapeseed oil in the UK, and Rapsöl in Germany.

Photos

Dwa kotlety mielone z puree ziemniaczanym i mizerią na talerzu we wzory

Kotlety mielone z ziemniakami w sosie, sałatą i miseczką buraczków

Trzy usmażone kotlety mielone na białym półmisku

Meat dishes Polish cuisine Substitutes abroad

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