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Wiener Schnitzel

submitted by: Lise (Moyes) Christiansen
source: Ilse "Mutti" Mittermayer

  • Veal, pork, or beef
    (cut from round of leg,
    about 1/2 inch thick)
  • salt
  • flour
  • several eggs
  • white breadcrumbs
  • oil

Trim the fat from the meat. Pound it to 1/4 inch thick with a wooden mallet (or a meat tenderizer). Pat it dry and salt it on both sides.

Just before cooking, prepare three low dishes big enough to dip meat into. In the first, put a few cups of flour. In the second, 2 or 3 three eggs, beaten. (Mutti adds a couple tablespoons of water to stretch it.) In the third, the breadcrumbs. Prepare the oil by filling your skillet with enough oil to cover the meat (1/2 inch or so). Heat it to about 375° F. It should be hot enough to sizzle and make the breading puff up as soon as you drop it in, but if it gets too hot, the breading will get soggy and greasy before the meat is cooked through.

Take each piece of meat and dip it into the flour until coated all over. Shake off the excess, and dip it into the egg, coating each side. Dip it into the breadcrumbs, again shaking off the excess. Drop it into the hot oil. Cook until the breading is golden (about 3 minutes) and turn with a fork to cook other side. Interior should be tender and juicy. Serve immediately with Austrian potato salad, and a lemon wedge, if desired.

Hints:

  • Buy the meat from the butcher (rather than prepacked), and have him/her cut it as thin as they can. It will save a lot of pounding.
  • You can still refridgerate the meat after it has been salted, but not after it has been breaded.
  • Lora Williams Walker adds another hint: "I've found that some supermarkets/butcher counters sell packages of pork tenderloin 'scallopini,' which are basically the same as the schnitzel cuts we always had in Austria, but not as large. Very thin, but not very big (I guess they don't butterfly cut it the way Austrian butchers do).



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Lise (Moyes) Christiansen
avmission@gmail.com