Not really Wiener schnitzel
"One of those dishes that's mysteriously more than the sum of its parts." Felicity Cloake
I have decided I am more thrifty, even parsimonious than I would like to think really, having just come back from a shopping expedition at Doncaster where I was completely unable to buy myself expensive clothes, which was my intention, even when heavily reduced.
Another example is the reduced in price pork schnitzels I saw in the supermarket the other day. I couldn't resist the bargain and bought them. David was delighted and asked to have a Wiener Schnitzel for his special meal, which is today. So here I go. It won't be a proper Wiener Schnitzel because it's pork, and the 'authentic' dish is veal, but pork is a perfectly acceptable substitute apparently. And we've talked about 'authentic' many times before.
Back in my almost youth I collected the Time-Life Foods of the World series from which comes the picture above. It shows a traditional Wiener Schnitzel being served in a Viennese restaurant. Note the size of the schnitzels - the accompaniments will not fit on the plate. And nor they should according to the author of this particular volume - The Cooking of Vienna's Empire - Joseph Wechsberg.
"How big should a Wiener Schnitzel be? The Viennese theory is that when it is served, you should not be able to see the rim of your plate." Joseph Wechsberg
Needless to say mine will not be anywhere as large. But they will be thin. They have already been sliced very thin and I can bash them a bit more if I like. Though I also read that it is better to buy a thicker cut and then bash it thin, rather than buying a thin cut. So that's probably mistake number one. Apparently the trick is to bash it as thin as you possibly can without any holes appearing in it. Bashing it makes it tenderer and juicier. So I obviously have to have a go at bashing it. I don't think it's so thin it can't be bashed a bit thinner.
So where does Wiener Schnitzel come from? Well Vienna obviously. Wiener means Viennese. And Schnitzel means cutlet. As always there is argument about its true origins. The popular story is that it was brought from Italy where the Costoletta alla Milanese is a very similar dish, though this is a chop not a boneless piece of meat. It was specifically brought to Vienna by a famous soldier - Joseph Radetzky - who told the emperor of the delicious dish he had eaten back in Milan. The recipe was given to the emperor and first printed and given its current name in1831. However, of course, a lot of doubt has been thrown on to this story. It's disappointing isn't it how many of these stories that involve actual people are scoffed at and disproved with glee. It does seem to me though that the Italian thing is probably true. There were also a lot of Italian immigrants to Austria in the 19th century and they may well have brought the recipe with them. Back in Italy a recipe for a breaded and fried veal cutlet can be dated back to 1148 and it is more than likely that the Romans had something similar. I mean how simple can you get really? Maybe somebody in Austria actually invented it. Wherever it came from the Austrians have made it their own - almost their national dish and it is not the same as the Italian version.
“the Milanese cut the meat from the rib and fry it in butter, whereas the Austrians take the escalope from the leg, and fry it in lard”. Alan Davidson
As to how to cook it, well Felicity Cloake does her usual brilliant analysis of all the different ways you can tackle it, and this plus a few other sites I visited clarified for me what the basic disputes were all about. Honestly how can you have so many disputes about something that is basically just a very thin breadcrumbed and fried piece of meat?
The breadcrumbs. There seems to be a growing trend towards the oh so fashionable panko breadcrumbs (Note to self - I really must do a post on them). But Felicity Cloake maintains these are too crunchy. Fresh breadcrumbs are too soft, so mostly people seem to think you should use dry breadcrumbs. If you haven't got any, dry fresh ones in the oven.
flour, eggs, breadcrumbs - in that order. Yes, but - some add some cream to the eggs. Others add a herb, some lemon zest and parmesan to the breadcrumbs or one or other of those. I think the additions are not 'authentic' but they're tempting. Well I'm not very good at the 'less is more' approach. I'm more of a 'more is more' person. This is the Hairy Biker's version, that had thyme and lemon zest in the crust. I can't remember if it had parmesan too. It looks pretty nice.
What do you fry it in? Well Alan Davidson seems to think it should be lard, and I did see several people agree with this. Joseph Wechsberg, in his page long essay on the subject, did say that some Austrians prefer lard, but he didn't seem to think that it was necessary. Besides I haven't got any. The majority seem to go for butter but the problem with this is that it will burn, and so it is mostly mixed with oil. Probably a flavour light vegetable oil rather than olive oil. For the general opinion seems to be that you need a fair amount of oil - that the schnitzels should 'swim' in the oil. Paradoxically this appears to make the schnitzel lighter and puffier. You keep them moving whilst cooking so they don't stick to the pan.
And of course there's the famous joke that it should be:
"so dry you could sit on it without having a fat stain on your pants". Joseph Wechsberg
He tried it and it didn't work.
What do you serve it with? Well almost nothing it seems.
"Connoisseurs serve nothing but large wedge of lemon on the plate with the Schnitzel. But you may not want to be a connoisseur. Do as you wish." Joseph Wechsberg
And I will. Potato salad seems to be the go to thing, but it's cold and I don't fancy that, so maybe some boiled and fried parsleyed potatoes. And I bought some bargain beans as well or maybe sugar snap peas for a change. I bought some of them too. Now they were not a bargain.
It's basically a really simple and rather plain dish. So I hope that Felicity Cloake's statement at the top of the page is true.
It's so simple, that really there are not a lot of variations out there. The version at left is Donna Hay's pretty authentic version, though she does have 13 other recipes defined as schnitzel - mostly chicken, which Felicity Cloake thinks, "just doesn't have the same depth of flavour as pork or veal."
I think the greatest variation seems to be in the coating - quinoa was one variant I saw, as well as the addition of various herbs and spices. And a sauce seems to be just wrong. Well it would make it go all soggy wouldn't it?
I'm hoping it will look like Donna Hay's or this one. And I do hope that my choice of thin sliced pork at a bargain price will not mean that it falls into this category.
"Most places use inexpensive cuts and pound it too thin. It’s like eating shingle off of a roof.” Stephen Attoe
Crossing fingers.
