Cutlets are a versatile dish that can be served both for a regular family dinner and for a gala dinner. Moreover, they can be meat, fish, vegetables, cereals. The essence of this dish is that any products are first crushed, then an oblong or round billet is formed from minced meat and it is already fried in a pan. It seems nothing complicated, but many housewives complain that their cutlets turn out dry and not tasty. Now we will tell you how to cook juicy and mouth-watering cutlets so that they are not ashamed to treat guests.
Tips for cooking meatballs:- Any meat that you are going to twist into cutlets should be moderately fatty. It is fat that releases the main juice, which gives juiciness to cutlets. If the meat is lean, then put fresh fat in the meat grinder with it. Proportions 3/1 (meat/fat).
- Meat for cutlets use only fresh chilled. If you take meat from the freezer, then when defrosting, all the juices will flow out of it, which will make it very tough.
- The presence of white bread soaked in milk will also add juiciness to meat cutlets. Crushed, it will then work in the minced meat like a sponge, and collect the liquid that is in the meat. Bread or loaf take two or three days. If you take a fresh bakery product, then instead of crumbs in a bowl there will be a mass resembling thick jelly. Before soaking in milk, be sure to trim the rind. For 1 kg of minced meat, add 300 g of bread.
- Many cooks add vegetables to minced meat instead of bread. Grate raw potatoes or fresh zucchini. Squeeze out the vegetable mass from excess moisture, but not to dryness. For 1 kg of minced meat, put 2 medium potatoes or 1 small zucchini. It is a little more difficult to sculpt cutlets from such minced meat than from minced meat with bread. So that the meat preparations do not fall apart in your hands, put one tablespoon of potato starch in the minced meat along with one egg. Such cutlets will be not only juicy, but also lush.
- While twisting the minced chicken, add one quarter of the chicken fat to it. If you are going to buy a whole chicken, then take a large one - cut off the fat near the hole through which the chicken was gutted. If the cutlets are going to be twisted from chicken fillet, then buy separately fresh chicken fat, which is sold in the meat departments.
- Chicken cutlets are very tasty and juicy if, at the very end of kneading the minced meat, add a little softened butter to it. For 1 kg of meat, 100 g of butter is enough. Soften it to a very thick cream. So that the oil does not leak out during frying, put some “Gentle” oatmeal in the minced chicken. They will absorb the oil, and the cutlets will remain juicy.
- In minced fish for juiciness of cutlets, put more onion and lard twisted through a meat grinder. For 1 kg of fish, take 2-3 onions and 200 g of fat. To prevent fish cakes from falling apart, beat an egg into them and pour in a quarter cup of dry semolina.
- Salo in fish cutlets can be replaced with butter or high-quality margarine.
- The vegetables themselves are juicy, so cutlets from them always turn out great. For a bunch of chopped vegetables, use semolina, raw egg or starch.
- Very tasty and juicy vegetable chops are obtained if they are made from a mixture of boiled and raw vegetables (1/1).
- To prevent the juice from flowing out of the cutlets, fry them in a hot pan. So a crust quickly forms in them, which closes the pores through which liquid can flow. If you make the cutlets thick, they may be raw inside when quickly fried. To avoid this problem, after frying for 10 minutes, hold the cutlets in a hot oven - they will “reach”.
- Breading for cutlets is also designed to prevent juice from flowing out. Usually, crackers crushed almost into powder are used for this. If you are going to fry the cutlets in this way, then cook them at once - when the fried cutlets are stored in the refrigerator, the breading becomes damp and acquires an unpleasant aftertaste.
- Instead of breadcrumbs, use a well beaten raw egg white. It will perfectly close the pores, and during storage, the cutlets will not become damp, but will remain crispy and appetizing.
- In any cutlets, especially if you cook them on a festive table, put a piece of butter before frying. Firstly, the oil will give the cutlets additional juiciness, and secondly, it will enrich the taste of the cutlets. Prepare the butter for the filling as follows: soften it, salt it, mix it with finely chopped greens and spread it with a long sausage on cling film. Wrap the sausage in foil and send it to the freezer. Free the frozen oil from the film and cut with a sharp knife into pieces the size of a small walnut.
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 determine 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, of course, 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
All! Delicious and juicy homemade turkey cutlets are ready! Enjoy your meal!
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:
- Chicken mince - 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
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, 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 tbsp.
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 don’t really like fatty foods (and I must admit that cutlets fried in a pan are a rather high-calorie dish with a lot of fat and a “harmful” 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), it is in no way inferior fish of expensive 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 them, 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 excessive separation of moisture, it is necessary, as in previous recipes, to mix 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 must be added, and, in fish cakes, bread is usually 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!
The word "cutlet" came into Russian from French, la côtelette is a piece of meat on a rib. So it was much more convenient to eat it with your hands in ancient times. With the advent of cutlery, the need for bones disappeared. Pieces of meat were removed from them. And the cutlet began to change. The meat began to be beaten to make it softer, and breaded to maintain juiciness. This process took place throughout Europe. The only thing reminiscent of the old days today is the chicken Kiev, which is often made with a bone.
Over time, the cutlets became chopped, as they were much easier to chew. And with the advent of meat grinders, they turned into a fairly easy dish to prepare. We will prepare them.Meat selection
For cutlets, you can take a piece of brisket or shoulder blades, chopped goulash is also suitable. But keep in mind that traders in the market can sell you bad meat. Therefore, when buying, you should ask to see a piece from all sides.
Cutlets are best made from chilled meat, not frozen.
The most delicious cutlets are obtained with the addition of fatty meat - pork or even lard.
Meat for cutlets should not be lean, take it with fat - then the cutlets will be juicy.
It is good to make cutlets from two or even three types of meat. You can combine beef and pork, you can add poultry meat to them.
Ground meat
The meat needs to be turned twice, but if it seems that the minced meat has not yet become tender, then three times.Be sure to put onions in minced meat. It is turned along with the meat or chopped very finely. Onions cut into slices should be placed in a meat grinder between pieces of meat.
It is advisable to cook cutlets only from freshly prepared minced meat. If you still make minced meat in advance, do not put bread in it, do not salt or add spices.
Minced meat must be kneaded by hand. You can even beat it with your palms - so it will turn out tender and soft.
Minced meat needs to be kneaded for a long time, you can beat it with your palms, throw it from one hand to another, beat it on the table. All in order for the meat mass to be saturated with oxygen and become more viscous, homogeneous.
A couple of tablespoons of ice water added during kneading will add juiciness to the minced meat. You can also pour a spoonful of vegetable oil.
A cube of cold butter, added at the end of kneading, will make the patties juicier and more airy.
Photo: Shutterstock.com
Bread
In order for the cutlets not to fall apart, bread is added to them.
It is necessary to soak dried bread, the amount of gluten necessary for “gluing” minced meat is not released from fresh bread.
Reduce calories
Instead of bread, you can add finely grated zucchini to the minced meat. It will give the cutlets juiciness, but its taste will be almost noticeable.
You can also add grated carrots, pumpkin, beets to cutlets - all these vegetables will give them juiciness.
Instead of bread, stiffly beaten protein can be mixed into the minced meat. He will connect the minced meat and will not let the cutlets fall apart. But maybe make them a bit tougher.
modeling
Before sculpting, minced meat is best cooled for half an hour.
To make it easier to divide the minced meat into portions, you need to moisten your hands with water.
Try to make the patties the same size.
When sculpting cutlets, pat it with your palms and try to make it uniform, without seams. So she will not release her juice.
Breading
You can roll cutlets:In ordinary flour
In breadcrumbs (both white and rye)
In crushed nuts
In ground sesame
frying
Cutlets spread on a hot, but not overheated pan. It is desirable that it has a thick bottom.
The cutlet is fried over high heat for 1-2 minutes on one side, then the fire needs to be reduced and then it is darkened on the same side for another 3-4 minutes. And then turn over and repeat the process.
When frying, cutlets need to be turned over minimally. Then their crust will not collapse and the juiciness will not go away.
You can bring the cutlets to readiness in the oven or under a tight lid over low heat. This will take 7-10 minutes.
The sauce is poured after the cutlets are fried and they are covered with a lid. You can just take sour cream, or you can cook something more complex.
Do not add water to sour cream so that there is more sauce, this will spoil the cutlets, kill their own juice.
Photo: Shutterstock.com
How to determine readiness
The cutlet needs to be pierced, if there is clear juice, it is ready.
If you fried the cutlet for about 20 minutes, of which 5-7 minutes under the lid, then this is enough for readiness.
If you want to freeze
Cutlets are best made from minced meat. Only the stuffing will then need to be better kneaded so that it does not fall apart.
Basic cutlet recipe
600 g beef goulash400 g pork goulash
2 medium onions
1/4 white loaf
1 glass of water
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tbsp. l. flour
1 cup sour cream
Step 1. Cut the loaf coarsely and pour water over it.
Step 2. Rinse the meat, peel the onion and cut into 4 parts. Turn the meat along with the onion through the fine grate of the meat grinder.
Step 3. Turn a second time. Salt and pepper. Mix well and knead the minced meat a little, like dough.
Step 4. Divide the minced meat into 3-4 parts and beat each with your palms for at least a minute.
Step 5. Remove the crust from the loaf, squeeze the bread and add to the minced meat.
Tip: If the minced meat seems dry, you can add a little milk, or water and vegetable oil to it.
Step 6. Form cutlets. Roll them in flour.
Tip: In the process of sculpting, you can beat the cutlets a little more with your palms, patting.
Step 7. Heat up a frying pan with oil. Put the cutlets and fry over high heat for half a minute (until a crust forms).
Step 8. Reduce the fire and fry over low heat for another 2-3 minutes.
Step 9. Turn the cutlets over and fry first over high heat, and then over low heat, as described in paragraphs 7 and 8.
Step 10. Leave the pan on low heat, close the lid and leave the cutlets to fry for about 7-15 minutes (depending on the size of the cutlets).
Tip: At this stage, you can pour sour cream over the cutlets to make a sauce. Just do not add water in any case, otherwise the cutlets will turn into a rag.
Step 11. Remove from heat, pour over sour cream, sprinkle with herbs, serve hot.
Pozharsky cutlets, Kiev style, turkey, pork, beef, fish, vegetable and cereal cutlets... Who would have thought that the original European recipe for cooking meat on the bone would gain such development and popularity. And despite the fact that the housewives cook this dish quite often, many of them are puzzled by the question of how to make the cutlets juicy and fluffy.
According to the cooking technology, 2 types of meat cutlets are distinguished: a chop cutlet and a cutlet made from minced meat. It is when preparing minced meat cutlets that housewives are interested in the answer to the main question: how to fry cutlets so that they are juicy. But before the frying stage, the process of their preparation is a whole cycle of actions with conditions that must be met and little secrets, knowing which you can cook a wonderful dish not only for the everyday menu, but also for the holiday.
The whole cooking process consists of several technological operations:
- Choice of meat.
- Preparation of additional ingredients.
- Grinding meat.
- Minced meat preparation.
- Cutlet molding.
- Heat treatment.
The choice of meat for cooking cutlets
You can talk about what kind of meat is best to use, choosing pieces on store shelves that perfectly match the recommendations, but the hostess does not always have such an opportunity.
When preparing meat for minced meat, it is better to follow the important rule of combining different types of meat: pork and beef, and even poultry. It is believed that cutlets made only from beef will be too lean and tough, and those made from pork will be too fatty. But no matter what the recipes prescribe, each housewife will still proceed from the preferences of her family, taking into account the usual diet.
It is usually recommended to choose not too lean meat for minced meat, observing the proportion of the ratio of pulp and fat of 80% to 20%. If the hostess does not have much choice, or she adheres to the rules of dietary nutrition, you can still make juicy and tasty cutlets by adding poultry meat and additional ingredients.
It is believed that the most delicious and juicy cutlets are obtained from chilled, and not from thawed meat. However, this condition cannot always be met, and when using meat from the freezer, it is important to consider that it must be frozen once, and not thawed and frozen several times.
Selection and preparation of ingredients for future stuffing
Here are examples of additives for minced meat (based on 500 grams of meat).
- Onion- a mandatory component (a pair of medium or one large onion is enough). Options for its preparation: either chop very finely with a knife, or grate on a fine grater, or coarsely chop into slices for further processing in a meat grinder along with meat.
- Garlic, is used at will and is not a mandatory ingredient (2-3 cloves).
- Additives for softness and splendor of cutlets. Among them, there are several options chosen at the discretion of the chef:
- raw potatoes, peeled and grated on a fine grater (1 - 2 potatoes);
- can be used instead of potatoes vegetable marrow, and also grate it, but with the condition of pre-cleaning the skin, if the zucchini has already grown and its skin is thick enough (the amount should be comparable to the volume of the grated potato);
- White bread(120 - 150 gr.), But not soft and fresh, but stale, lain for several days, with a hard crust previously cut off and soaked in water or milk;
- can be a substitute for bread semolina(1 - 2 tablespoons), but with the use of semolina it is important not to overdo it, otherwise the cutlets will lose their juiciness.
- Spices, the use of which is a matter of taste and habit. It is important to carefully consider the dosage when adding them, as they will either spoil the taste of the patties or provide them with a pleasant aroma and additional taste.
- Water or milk, with priority towards ordinary cold water, can be boiled (100-200 ml, the volume must be determined after scrolling the minced meat, see how wet it turned out).
- Salt.
- Pepper.
- Egg- at the discretion of the cook, but if possible, then either completely abandon the eggs, or use only the yolk.
- Butter.
- Chipped ice.
It is not necessary to have absolutely all of the above listed ingredients on hand. If you plan to add bread, then semolina is not required, and if you decide to add potatoes, then you can completely do without bread.
Meanwhile, some cooks, mindful of the saying that you can’t spoil porridge with butter, decide to use almost all additives. In this case, you need to decide what goal is set: to increase the amount of minced meat or still preserve the taste of the meat dish and get juicy cutlets.
Minced meat preparation
During the absence of meat grinders, minced meat was prepared with the help of. To this day, it is believed that this is the most acceptable way to preserve the juice in future cutlets. But since there is not always time for this, and a meat grinder has long been invented, minced meat is most often prepared with its help.
Meat and onion cut into pieces, if it has not been prepared in advance with a grater or chopped with a knife, are scrolled in a meat grinder. How many times it is necessary to skip the meat, the decision is made by the hostess: someone likes cutlets of sufficiently coarse grinding, and someone prefers to scroll the meat 2-3 times.
After grinding the meat, it is necessary to add the ingredients prepared in advance in accordance with the planned composition to the resulting mass: salt, pepper, seasonings, soaked bread, which should not be squeezed hard, grated potatoes or zucchini.
Since the dish must be juicy, cold water is poured into the prepared mass.
After mixing, you need to saturate the minced meat with oxygen and improve the adhesion of the ingredients to each other. To do this, you will need not only to knead it well, but to beat it off, with force throwing the minced meat into the container, about 10 times. Next, the container with the contents can be sent for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Forming cutlets
Minced meat is ready, and you can start sculpting cutlets. To do this, the hands must be wetted with cold water, otherwise the mixture will stick to the hands.
And since it is necessary to fry juicy cutlets, you can use one of two methods to increase their juiciness, in addition to cold water added directly to the minced meat:
- put a small piece of crushed ice in the middle of each cutlet;
- add a small piece of butter to the middle of the workpiece.
It is better to roll each formed cutlet in breadcrumbs or in flour, so that later a crust forms during frying, which will prevent the juice from flowing into the pan.
What cutlets should be in size, the choice is up to the cook, but it is better to take into account the rule: the smaller the cutlet, the less juicy it will be, and large portions are difficult to fry. You need to choose the golden mean.
Heat treatment
While cutlets are molded, you can already put a pan on the stove and start heating it with sunflower oil.
To fry soft and juicy cutlets, they must be laid out in a preheated pan. It is important that the heating temperature allows for the formation of a crust in the first minutes of roasting.
To achieve this, after the first minutes of cooking, the temperature must be lowered and the cutlets allowed to sweat on the side to be fried. Then they need to be turned over, and, adding temperature, fry the second side, then reduce the intensity of heating the pan, cover with a lid and let it cook for about 10 - 15 minutes.
For those who are afraid of overcooking the cutlets, after the formation of a crust on both sides, you can remove them from the stove, move them to a preheated oven and bring them to full readiness in this way.
Each chef conducts his own experiments, changing the ingredients added to minced meat, adjusting the temperature and roasting methods. It is better to write down the most successful results and create your own recipes, choosing the composition and technology for preparing the most delicious, juicy and lush cutlets.
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- how to make juicy meatballs
- how to make cutlets juicy and fluffy from minced meat
Ready minced meat is a frequent "guest" in our refrigerator. Beef, pork, lamb, chicken, etc. - you can not only add it to soup, rice, potatoes, pasta, but also make delicious, juicy cutlets from it. The main thing is to know a few secrets, which we will tell you about in this article.
Often, ready-made minced meat is sold in stores in a “fresh” form, that is, absolutely no auxiliary ingredients are added to it during manufacture that can give it a specific, spicy taste and aroma. That is why, when preparing cutlets, it is advisable to add various spices and aromatic herbs to purchased minced meat.
For juiciness, many housewives add rolled zucchini, cabbage, potatoes and lard to minced meat, and for splendor - a piece of bread. Only, as practice shows, not fresh bread should be used, but slightly stale, since a fresh loaf has an increased “stickiness”, which gives the products a not too appetizing look.
Minced meat cutlets - food preparation
In order to prepare minced meat cutlets, it must be thawed at room temperature, mixed with the ingredients that the recipe dictates to us. Then form cutlets of medium thickness, roll in breadcrumbs or flour and fry on both sides in a pan until cooked. Those who do not trust store-bought products may well prepare minced meat from fresh meat at home using a meat grinder.
Minced meat patties - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Minced meat cutlets "Homemade"
Minced meat cutlets “Homemade” is a dish that many housewives cook from time to time, making their own adjustments to the classic recipe. The main thing is that the cutlets turn out lush, tasty and tender. As a side dish for such cutlets, you can serve mashed potatoes, rice, pasta or boiled vegetables.
Ingredients:
- 500 gr. minced pork
- one egg
- 150 gr. loaf pulp
- a glass of milk
- 100 gr. onion
- three to four cloves of garlic
- breadcrumbs
- vegetable oil
- to taste pepper, salt
Cooking method:
1. Soak the pulp of the loaf in warm milk for ten minutes. Finely chop the onion.
2. Put the minced meat in a bowl and mix it with chopped onion and a loaf softened in milk. Add the egg and minced garlic.
3. Add ground pepper and salt to taste. Mix well. We form cutlets in the traditional way and roll them in breadcrumbs.
4. Fry the cutlets in a pan with the addition of vegetable oil until cooked over low heat. At the end, we add a little heat so that the cutlets are browned. Alternatively, homemade cutlets can be cooked in the oven with a minimum amount of fat added.
Recipe 2: Minced Meatballs with White Cabbage
White cabbage gives the cutlets juiciness and an unusual taste. To make the cutlets not too fatty, mix two types of minced meat - pork and beef.
Ingredients:
- 200 gr. minced pork
- 200 gr. minced beef
- 400 gr. cabbage
- one bulb
- one egg
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- garlic to taste
- frying oil
- premium flour mixed with semolina
Cooking method:
1. Cabbage with onions and garlic is passed through a meat grinder. Drain off any excess juice. Mix the rolled vegetables with ground beef and pork.
2. Add the egg, pepper and salt, spices and chopped herbs as desired. Mix everything well into a homogeneous mass.
3. We form cutlets, roll them in flour mixed with semolina, and fry them in a pan until cooked.
Recipe 3: Minced Chicken Cutlets with Mushrooms
Minced meat for cutlets is best prepared in advance at home. To do this, we twist the fresh chicken fillet (500 gr.) in a meat grinder, adding 50-70 gr to the minced meat. raw potatoes (fresh zucchini), white bread crumb, garlic, pepper and salt to taste.
Ingredients:
- 600 gr. minced meat (should be about the same amount)
- 200 gr. mushrooms (porcini or champignons)
- 100 gr. Luke
- flour or breadcrumbs
- vegetable oil
- parsley greens
Cooking method:
1. Scroll the onion separately and chop the parsley. Pass the washed mushrooms in a frying pan. Grind them in a blender. Mix with onions, minced chicken, herbs.
2. We form cutlets, roll in flour or breadcrumbs (as you like). Fry in vegetable oil until tender.
Recipe 4: Minced Meatballs with Cheese and Tomatoes
Auxiliary ingredients in the form of cheese and tomatoes make minced meat cutlets more saturated, tasty and juicy. Minced meat is recommended to use mixed, that is, consisting of pork and beef.
Ingredients:
- 300 gr. minced pork
- 200 gr. minced beef
- a slice of stale bread
- one bulb
- three cloves of garlic
- vegetable oil
- two tomatoes
- one chicken egg
- half a bunch of dill and parsley
- ground pepper to taste
- salt
- 150 gr. hard cheese "Russian" (or any other)
- breadcrumbs - about 100 gr.
Cooking method:
1. Peel the onion and garlic. Wash greens and tomatoes. Soak stale bread in water (milk) for ten minutes and squeeze.
2. Finely chop the onion. We chop greens. Cut cheese and tomatoes into small cubes. We combine minced pork with beef, mix it with bread, egg, garlic, onions, tomatoes, herbs and cheese. Salt, pepper. We mix the ingredients well.
3. We form cutlets from the resulting mixture, roll the products in breadcrumbs and fry on both sides in well-heated vegetable oil. Any side dish is suitable for such cutlets. Bon appetit everyone!
- For the preparation of minced meat cutlets, it is advisable to use mixed minced meat, consisting equally of both beef and pork;
- If you plan to add onion to minced meat cutlets, then it should be cut as small as possible, overcooked separately in a pan and only then mixed with the total mass;
- If you are cooking cutlets from lean meats or chicken, be sure to add butter to the minced meat, but do not overdo it, otherwise the cutlets will turn out loose and will not keep their shape well;
- Cutlets will turn out to be no less tasty, but more healthy if they are cooked not in a pan, but baked in the oven.