What to add to minced meat to make it harder. Juicy minced meat patties: recipe with photo

Fried cutlets are one of the pillars of home comfort. But inexperienced cooks with cutlets often have problems. Most often, they complain that the cutlets are too tough, or fall apart right in the pan. Correcting the situation is very simple. Consider the basic recipe for the perfect cutlets and several variations on the cutlet theme from amateur chefs and real professionals.

Minced cutlet classic

If you take third-rate meat for minced meat, you should not count on an excellent result. Bad meat - bad meatballs. So do not be greedy, but choose good pork and beef on the market, at the same time buy onions if you already have spices, salt and milk in your house.

A kilogram of meat will require a couple of small onions, four cloves of garlic and 1/3 of a city roll (loaf). Salt and spices are added to the finished minced meat to taste, but it is recommended not to be too zealous so that the cutlets do not turn out too salty. As for meat, you can use only veal or not too old beef for cutlets, or take equal parts of beef and pork. Cutlets from one pork may turn out to be too fatty, which will not please your pancreas.

A loaf (preferably a little stale) is placed in a container with milk or water, onions and meat are cut into pieces, and together with garlic and pieces of soaked loaf are scrolled in a meat grinder. Someone is content with a single scroll, and someone considers it right to scroll the meat two or three times. This is a matter of taste: there are people who generally recognize only chopped cutlets, and do without meat grinders, with one knife and sleight of hand.

In order for the cutlets not to lose their shape, many people add an egg or semolina to the minced meat as a binding agent. Do not do this: the cutlets will turn out harsh. And so that the cutlets do not turn out crumbly, be sure to beat off the finished minced meat! In order not to stain all the walls and ceiling of the kitchen, take a deep pan. Raising a portion of minced meat higher, plop it into the pan with force. Repeat this for at least three minutes. Well beaten minced meat does not need eggs and semolina - the cutlets will turn out even, smooth, and will never fall apart when frying. Such cutlets are rolled either in flour or in breadcrumbs.

If possible, make more stuffing. It is convenient to freeze it, divided into portions. But then during the week it is enough to get the next package with minced meat in advance, and fresh cutlets are provided for dinner.

Poultry cutlets

Everyone loves chicken cutlets, except for vegetarians, but they love them too, they just don’t admit it. Tender, creamy, fried - these cutlets will decorate any table. The most delicious chicken cutlets are pozharsky. In the old cookbook, published back in the days of the USSR, fire cutlets were prescribed to be cooked like this. With a good, weighty chicken, remove the skin, separate the meat from each bone and scroll it through a meat grinder. This stuffing is mixed with white bread, pre-soaked in milk, and passed through a meat grinder again. The most delicate substance that you have turned out should be salted, flavored with oil and mixed thoroughly, preferably with a wooden spoon. Form cutlets, gently roll them in finely ground breadcrumbs, and then fry in hot oil on both sides until golden brown. After the cutlet, either send it to the preheated oven for 5 minutes, or close the lid and leave on minimum heat for the same time. The ratio of chicken meat and white bread is 10 to 1 (that is, take 100 g of bread for 1 kg of meat). Do not try to throw away chicken bones - they will come in handy for the broth.

Turkey cutlets are prepared in much the same way, only onion and garlic are added to the minced meat, and for softness - a tablespoon of sour cream. In the oven, roasted turkey cutlets should be held longer - about twenty minutes.

Reference fish cakes

For fish cakes, you will have to buy ready-made fillets or fresh fish, which will need to be cleaned, gutted and de-boned. There are no special preferences for the breed of fish intended for meatballs. It can be the simplest pollock, cod, hake, zander - anyone, but not too bony.

The fillet is scrolled through a meat grinder with white bread soaked in milk. Connoisseurs advise adding fried onions there, as it gives fish cakes a special flavor. But then the stuffing can turn out to be watery. It doesn't matter - add flour or a little semolina to it. Don't forget to season the minced fish with salt and pepper. It is better to scroll the minced meat twice - it will be very tender. Breaded fish cutlets in breadcrumbs. Such cutlets should be fried shortly before serving, and before serving, darken for 5-7 minutes in the oven.

Fish cakes can be perfectly cooked for a couple, and immediately send them to the oven for 20 minutes - it will still turn out delicious.

As usual, the advice is to experiment. Try adding vegetables when making minced meat - this gives the cutlets additional juiciness. Cabbage, zucchini, potatoes, carrots, and even all these vegetables together are best suited for this business. Combine types of meat for minced meat, do not be afraid of too fatty pork - it perfectly balances minced meat from tough beef. And hide away your grandmother's manual meat grinder: minced meat is much more fun to do with a modern electric one.

It would seem that it is difficult to cook meatballs? However, for some reason, for some they fall apart, for others, on the contrary, they turn out to be too dense, the housewives do not always guess the correct proportions, the ratio of products in cutlets ... These tips will help you prepare the dish in such a way that it will not be ashamed to serve even to the holiday table! The subtleties of cooking cutlets, which you have not thought about before.

Immediately I want to tell you about a trick that has no equal. You will definitely come back to thank our site in the comments if you try it in practice!

The next time you cook cutlets, take a chance and add some mustard powder or mustard seeds to the minced meat: 1 tbsp in total. l. for the whole stuffing. This amount of mustard will be enough to make the cutlets more tender. They will have a pleasant bitterness, and they will also turn out incomparably lush and juicy ... Try it for pleasure! And check out our detailed recommendations for cooking cutlets: they are really good and tested by housewives in practice.

How to cook delicious meatballs
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, brisket and some parts of the hind leg are ideal.
Before putting the fillet into 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.

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.


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. It is the soaked bread that helps to make the cutlets 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).

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 sculpting 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.

Frying Features
There is nothing complicated in frying cutlets, the main thing is to put them on a hot frying pan with hot oil (preferably melted butter) so that the minced meat “grabs”, a crust forms and then the dish does not fall into pieces.
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 like this helpful article? Live and learn! Let this information about cooking meatballs help you create delicious dishes with ease. Do not be greedy - share these recommendations with other housewives.

Any classic recipe can always be altered to your taste by slightly changing the list of ingredients. In particular, this applies to the preparation of cutlets - each housewife has her own "proprietary" technique.

Options for additives for cutlets

We will give the number of ingredients per 0.5 kg of minced meat, from which about 8-10 cutlets come out - depending on how you make them in size.

Classic recipe

• Onion. One medium bulb is enough. You can either just chop it finely, or pass it through a meat grinder. You can also pre-fry the onion in a pan. Just keep in mind that in this case, the minced meat will be even fatter. Usually, onions are fried for lean minced chicken cutlets.
• Egg. So that the cutlets are not too liquid, it will be enough to put 1 egg. But if you bought very small eggs, it is quite acceptable to add a couple of pieces.
• Bread. A small slice of bread is soaked for a couple of minutes in milk or plain water. Then it is squeezed a little to remove excess water, and put into minced meat. You can also pass it through a meat grinder.

Cutlets with vegetables

• Onion. One onion is required - chopped or passed through a meat grinder.
• Carrot. One carrot, grated, will be enough.
• Bell pepper. If the pepper is very large, then half of it will suffice. If small - then add one pepper. First chop it into small cubes.

Vegetables are added to the minced meat along with the egg and soaked bread. They can be put raw or fried in a little oil. The latter option is still better to use for low-fat minced chicken.

By the way, you can also add some mushrooms to the cutlets, for example, 7-10 champignons will be enough. They can be boiled beforehand, or they can be added to minced meat raw, but peeled from the film, thoroughly washed and cut into cubes. You can also soak the mushrooms for 30 minutes in salt water. To do this, add 2 tablespoons of salt to 0.5 liters of water. Place mushrooms in it and wait. With this cooking option, minced meat needs to be salted a little less.

creamy cutlets

• Cheese. Cut 100 g of cheese into small cubes and add it to the minced meat.
• Sour cream. Add 2-3 tablespoons of sour cream to the minced meat along with onions and eggs, bread. It is better to take a product with a fat content of 15-20% - it will be tastier.

You can use both ingredients in the preparation of cutlets or only one of them. These ingredients are suitable for both classic minced meat and minced meat, where there are also additional vegetables.

Original cutlets

What is added to cutlets if they want to cook this dish in a special way? There can be any number of options here.

For example, you can cook juicy tender chicken cutlets with prunes in sauce. To do this, for 600 g of minced meat, you need to take 200 ml of cream, 100 ml of wine and 100 g of cheese, 1 egg, 1 onion, breadcrumbs. Prunes are taken to taste - depending on how brightly you want to feel it in cutlets. For example, you can take one prunes for each cutlet - about 6 rather large cutlets come out of this amount of meat. Prunes and cheese are added as toppings. After frying the breaded cutlets for several minutes, wine and cream are poured into them - the dish is stewed in this sauce until cooked.

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 times today is the Kiev cutlet, which is often made with a bone.

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 goulash

400 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.

The basic recipes for cutlets do not differ much from each other. But, for some reason, different housewives make cutlets completely different. Every housewife wants her cutlets to be lush, juicy and appetizing. To achieve the perfect dish, you need to know some recipes.
It doesn’t matter if the hostess uses purchased or hand-made minced meat for making cutlets. In both cases, it is important what to add to the minced meat so that the cutlets are juicy.

Secrets of juicy and soft cutlets:
. When adding bread to minced meat, it must be soaked. Some people soak bread in milk - and this is a fatal mistake, because bread soaked in milk will eventually prevent the dish from being juicy. Bread must be soaked in cold boiled water;
. It is best to take white wheat stale bread to add to minced meat. If the bread is fresh, then the cutlets will become unpleasantly sticky. In order for the minced meat to be juicy and soft, it is necessary to add white bread, because it is able to increase the volume of products;
. White bread in minced meat is necessary for making meatballs, because it will absorb the secreted meat juice. Due to this, the dish will turn out soft, lush and juicy;
. Bread should be added to minced meat quite a bit, because it absorbs oil well, in which cutlets will be fried in a pan. If there is a lot of bread in the meat, then it will absorb all the fat and the cutlets will not turn out juicy. In relation to the mass of meat, approximately 15-20% of bread should be added to it;
. When adding onion to minced meat, many pass it through a meat grinder. To get the perfect dish, it is better to finely chop the onion;
. Many housewives add eggs to minced meat. But they are not considered a mandatory component, because they can give stiffness to ready-made cutlets. If you want to add eggs, it is best to mix only the yolk into the minced meat;
. Instead of bread, you can also add any vegetables to minced meat: cabbage, carrots, and even potatoes. Additional vegetables must first be grated on a fine grater;
. Size matters. The cutlet will be the juicier, the larger it is;

It is important! If cutlets are prepared from ground meat, then bread soaked in water does not need to be squeezed hard before adding it to the meat.

What meat to choose for minced meat
We already know what to add to minced chicken to make the cutlets juicy or to any other type of meat (bread and onions). But, first you need to properly process the stuffing itself. If you need to mix it very well and beat it off so that it is saturated with oxygen. No milk needs to be added, but boiled water will not hurt.

Piece of ice or butter
A very important secret of what to add to minced meat so that the cutlets are juicy, which many housewives do not even know about. Before frying the cutlet, put a piece of ice in its center. Quickly form a cutlet and send it to fry in a pan or oven. Instead of a piece of ice inside each cutlet, for greater juiciness and softness, you can wrap a piece of butter.

Is panning necessary?

In order for the final result to please one hundred percent, it is important not only to properly prepare the minced meat and add all the necessary ingredients to it. It is important to fry the meatballs correctly. It is best to use breading when frying. It can be plain flour or breadcrumbs. Instead of these breading ingredients, you can also use lightly beaten protein.

It is important! So that the cutlets are well formed and the minced meat does not stick to the hands, the hands must be periodically moistened in clean water.

Additional useful information:
. You can add a few tablespoons of sour cream to the minced meat to make it softer and juicier. But, in this case, you need to be prepared for the fact that the finished product will taste like sour cream;
. To make the cutlets very juicy, you need to add as much boiled water to the minced meat as the meat can absorb;
. When there is not enough white bread in the house, but you need to urgently cook cutlets, this ingredient can be replaced with potatoes. Not with black bread, but with potatoes grated on a fine grater;
. The batter will not let the juice flow out of the cutlet, so if you want to get a juicy dish, you can first roll the cutlet in batter. To prepare the batter, you need to mix milk, eggs and flour;

These are all the secrets of what to add to minced turkey so that the cutlets are juicy. Moreover, it is not so important, it is minced turkey or chicken, pork, beef or lamb. Or you can just make chicken croquettes. There will be no difference in supplements.

What to add to minced meat so that the cutlets are juicy? Definitely white bread and onions. You can serve cutlets with dietary stewed cabbage or any other favorite side dish. Everything else is added by the hostess solely at her own request. But every recommendation in this article will help you get soft, tasty and juicy meatballs that will melt in your mouth.