What is the difference between a steak and a cutlet? Meatballs are different from meatballs.

What is the difference between a schnitzel and a cutlet, not everyone knows. Some people have never tried this dish with an overseas name. Others mistakenly believe that a cutlet is exclusively a product of minced meat with onions and eggs. It turns out that there are many misconceptions and white spots.

What is a schnitzel and how to cook it?

Schnitzel is called fried on both sides in in large numbers butter meat. It is preliminarily thinly cut, giving an oval shape to a piece. Then salted, peppered, dipped in milk-egg mixture and breadcrumbs.

Suitable for making schnitzel:

In principle, any meat, but there is one important condition: it should be pulp without any veins or cartilage. For example, ham or loin.

It is recommended to cut pieces across the fibers. If the layer is too thick, it can be beaten off a little. Fry should be until golden crisp, under which the soft center will be hidden. This contrast is the main charm of the schnitzel.

What is a cutlet?

Many are accustomed to thinking that a cutlet is a product made from ground meat, to which onions (garlic), eggs, salt, and pepper are added; then they gave the desired shape, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried until brown. In general, this is true, but there is a nuance. Cutlets by this recipe have started cooking recently. A slightly different method is considered classic - on the bone.

For cooking, they take any meat with a bone, lightly beat it, salt it, pepper it, dip it in a mixture of milk and eggs, and then breadcrumbs. Fry in a pan in the usual amount vegetable oil before crust formation. Bring to readiness in the oven. Such a cutlet has much in common with schnitzel, although there are also differences.

There are even more of them if we are talking about a more familiar chopped cutlet. Meat for her really does not have to grind - you can finely chop or cut. It will turn out even tastier.

Comparative results

Now we can sum up the comparative results. Meat is required to make a schnitzel or cutlet. However, in the first case, pulp is required, and in the second, a piece with a bone. If chopped cutlets are being prepared, then all the same - the ideal pulp is not needed. Veins are allowed, which will be ground. Although without them, of course, better.

The cutlet and the schnitzel are united by the fact that the products are coated with a special liquid and breaded before frying. However, the schnitzel, unlike the cutlet, is fried in a large amount of oil (almost deep-fried) and does not require baking in the oven, as is the case with the cutlet on the bone.

Cutlet and schnitzel are not independent dishes. They are served with a side dish. Quite another thing is their "brother" - a steak. He is completely independent. He does not need any "company" when applying. The steak has something in common with a cutlet and a schnitzel. A piece of meat is also fried in oil, previously cut into thin layers.

However, firstly, it is only suitable for a steak beef tenderloin. Secondly, before frying, the meat is not rolled in anything and is not breaded - they are only beaten, salted and peppered. Thirdly, the steak does not have to be fried to the end. It can be half-baked - that is, with blood.

Now it’s clear how a schnitzel differs from a cutlet and a steak. Choosing what to cook - depends only on personal preferences.

Delicious and hearty dinner it's not hard to make, you just need to make mashed potatoes and submit to him fragrant cutlets or juicy, crispy schnitzel. Cutlet is a dish known to everyone, but few people know that according to the recipe familiar to us, it has been prepared not so long ago. Traditional cutlet is a small piece of meat on the bone, from which the schnitzel differs only in the absence of this very bone. The cutlet that we are used to has more differences from the schnitzel. We will talk about them now.

Schnitzel- a thin layer of meat, rolled in breadcrumbs or flour and fried in a large amount of oil until golden and crispy.
Wiener Schnitzel
Cutlet- a product in the form of a small cake of minced meat with the addition of eggs, onions, bread, seasonings or other ingredients according to the selected recipe. Now no less popular are vegetable and cereal-vegetable cutlets, in which meat is not added.
Minced meat cutlet

Difference between schnitzel and cutlet

To prepare a schnitzel, you need to take a piece of pork, beef or poultry meat, divide it into thin layers, beat them a little (you may not beat them), salt, pepper and roll in breadcrumbs. After that, the schnitzel is deep-fried (that is, in a large amount of oil) until cooked. The finished schnitzel has a golden brown color, its crust is very crispy, and the meat inside is soft and tender.
After frying, the schnitzel can be stored in the refrigerator as a semi-finished product. It can be easily reheated in a pan or in the microwave.
The cutlet is prepared from any type of meat, from which (together with onions) you need to make minced meat. It is added necessary ingredients and cutlets are formed, which are breaded and fried in a pan on both sides. After cooking, they are laid out in a pan and covered with a lid: this way the cutlets will retain their softness and juiciness longer. You can also prepare a sauce (creamy, for example), pour cutlets over it and simmer them for a while.
If you are going to make cutlets for future use, then form cakes, roll in breadcrumbs, freeze them a little on a plate, and then put them in a bag and leave them in freezer. Ready cutlets are not stored for a long time.
Cutlets can be made healthier by steaming them.

TheDifference.ru determined that the difference between a schnitzel and a cutlet is as follows:

Schnitzel is made from a whole layer of meat. There is a variety of schnitzel from minced meat. The cutlet is made from minced meat.
Schnitzel is always a meat dish. Cutlet can be vegetable, cereal-vegetable.
The schnitzel is deep-fried, much less oil is required for frying cutlets.
Schnitzel always has a crisp golden hue.
Ready schnitzel can be stored long time in the refrigerator, the cutlet has a shorter shelf life.
Schnitzel is prepared only by roasting. Cutlets can be steamed.

In European cuisine, cutlets have long established themselves as a delicious meat dishes. Their recipes are varied. They can be from meat, poultry, fish and even vegetables. This dish in Russian cuisine is prepared from minced meat with the addition of various ingredients. Chopped cutlets took root so much in cookbooks housewives that many do not even know about the original method of preparing a meat masterpiece.

The recipe for cutlets has its roots in France. This dish is prepared only from whole meat and differs in several cooking methods. French chop and natural cutlet. They will be discussed in this article.

The recipe for a natural cutlet appeared in France in the Middle Ages. For its preparation used beef or pork ribs, which were additionally wrapped with layers of meat so that the rib bone remained free. She carried the functionality of cutlery, which had not yet been invented in those days. In order to be able to take a hot and juicy natural cutlet, and at the same time not burn or get your hands dirty, they used a costal bone.

Now appeared huge variety recipes, cooking techniques and names of this dish. The bone no longer carries the former functionality, but it remained in cooking as a decorative part of the dish.

For clarity modern version natural cutlet is given below classic recipe.

For cooking you will need:

• Pork on the bone - 2 pcs.
• salt and ground pepper- taste.
• Red onion - 1 pc.
• Lemon juice - 3 tablespoons
• Peppercorns - 10 pcs.
• Soy sauce -2 tbsp.
• Bay leaf 2 pcs.

The meat must first be pricked with a fork on both sides. Sprinkle lemon juice over each piece and season with salt and pepper. Onion cut into half rings. Place half in the bottom of a suitable bowl. Roll up the meat and cover with the remaining onion. Add peppercorns and Bay leaf. Pour soy sauce. It can be replaced with any other to taste. For example, mustard or adjika. Leave the meat in the marinade for an hour. Heat up a frying pan strong fire, add oil. Get juicy meat cutlets from the marinade. Fry on both sides.

In a modern recipe, a natural cutlet is not wrapped with layers of meat, it is pre-marinated and pricked to give juiciness.

The recipe for this dish appeared as a result of the evolution of a natural cutlet. The first analogues of modern chops appeared with the advent of cutlery.

When the need for bone for the convenience of the process of eating food disappeared, it was no longer used. The chop began to be prepared without bones and veins, previously beaten off with a kitchen mallet with spikes and fried in breadcrumbs. From there the name chop cutlet came from.

A visual recipe for a classic chop cutlet:

• Pork fillet - 2 pcs.
• Salt and pepper - to taste.
• Breadcrumbs - 100 gr.
• Egg - 1 pc.
• Wine vinegar - 1 tbsp.
• Flour - 100 gr.
• Garlic - 2 cloves.
• Vegetable oil - for frying.

Pieces of meat must first be cleaned of veins and bones. Make shallow cuts around the entire perimeter of the future cutlets. It is good to beat off on both sides with a kitchen hammer. Make small cuts along the edges so that the dish does not lose its shape during frying.

Separately, beat one egg, salt and add vinegar. Prepare 3 containers. Pour flour into one, breadcrumbs into another, egg with vinegar into the last. Peel the garlic and cut lengthwise. Crush each half with the edge of a knife.

Put a frying pan over medium heat, add oil and place garlic in it. Fry for a few minutes and remove. Turn on the fire on the stove. Rub meat with salt and pepper. Dip each piece into the egg mass so that it completely covers the meat. Then immediately roll in flour and then in breadcrumbs. Place the chop in the pan and fry on both sides.

Above is a classic recipe. Chefs have invented a lot of different solutions. They replace flour, add cheese to the dish and experiment with various seasonings, which gives the dish a great advantage.

Differences between natural and chops

Having learned what a natural cutlet and chop are, you can move on to the main topic of the article. What is their difference.

The most common and beloved by many minced meat food is, of course, cutlets. Everyone can easily name other similar dishes, such as meatballs, meatballs, meatballs ... But they will most likely think about how meatballs differ from meatballs and meatballs. To understand this, you need to take a closer look at each type of these wonderful products, perhaps plunge into history. So how are meatballs different from meatballs?

What is a modern cutlet

Today, in Russian cuisine, cutlets are fried or steamed oval-shaped products that can be made from meat (beef, pork, chicken, etc.) and minced fish, potatoes, cereals, vegetables, mushrooms. Most popular view- these are beef and pork (as well as combined) cutlets made from minced meat, scrolled through a meat grinder. Onion (garlic), pepper, loaf crumb, potatoes or semolina, milk, a raw egg. Then rather flat oval-shaped cakes are formed, as a rule, pointed on one side and rounded on the other. Each hostess chooses the size of cutlets herself. Their length can vary from 6 to 12 cm.

They are fried on both sides in a frying pan without a lid over high heat until golden brown. Then they can add sour cream or sauce, cover and simmer for a few more minutes. People who avoid fried foods tend to prefer steamed patties cooked in a double boiler or oven.

Modern cutlets from meat - universal dish suitable for any side dish: fried potatoes and mashed potatoes, buckwheat porridge and rice, stewed cabbage and other vegetables. After all, they can be eaten on their own, with or without gravy.

In domestic cuisine, there are two more varieties - Pozharsky and Kiev style.

The first option is juicy cutlet from poultry (game or chicken), breaded in white breadcrumbs and fried until crispy.

The second option is a chop of chicken fillet in which is wrapped butter, With chicken bone at one end. Mushrooms, herbs, egg yolk, grated cheese can be added to the oil. The cutlet is coated with an egg, then rolled and deep-fried.

What used to be called a cutlet

I must say that in the original sense, a cutlet is a chop of meat on the bone or a piece fish fillet. In Europe, this is still the case, but the modern Russian cutlet there, most likely, would be called meatballs or croquettes.

Cutlet in the true sense is a chop of meat on the bone. Chopped and fried pieces of meat in our country are usually called simply chops. The most popular way to prepare them: beat off, place on a baking sheet, salt, pepper, put onion rings and grated cheese on top, pour mayonnaise and put in the oven for 40 minutes. Traditionally, they are made from pork, chicken and beef.

Now you need to find out what the chicks are. What is the difference from cutlets and is there any?

About meatballs

So in modern Russian cuisine they call small round products from minced meat, but not as flat as cutlets, but thicker.

The formed meatballs are first fried in a pan, then placed in a saucepan, sauce is added and stewed over low heat. Serve meatballs with the same side dishes as cutlets. It turns out that the question of how meatballs differ from cutlets can be answered that only in form.

I must say that before the meatballs that came to us from France were tenderloin chops and were called medallions. They say that in Russia they were renamed, according to the method of preparation, into meatballs. But chopped cutlets prevailed, because they did not require tenderloin and the type of meat did not matter much. Today they are prepared mainly from minced or minced meat, but they have retained their name, and round form- this is the only way meatballs differ from cutlets.

What are meatballs

Meatballs are called balls made from minced meat or fish. They can also be sized Walnut, and with a small apple. In addition to meat, bread, rice, onions, spices, raw eggs, breadcrumbs, vegetables, dried fruits can be added to them. They are fried, stewed in sauce, steamed, baked. Meatballs are always rolled in flour and never breadcrumbs. They should have a fairly loose texture.

Serve meatballs with sauce or pour over the broth in which they were stewed. As a rule, there is a lot of sauce, they just float in it. The fact is that they came to us from the cuisine of the Turks, where they were boiled in a common cauldron and then served together with gravy, which had a thick appearance. Traditionally, this method of serving has been preserved, as well as a sauce consisting of tomatoes, leeks, fried onion, celery, garlic, flour, sour cream (sour fruit) and meat broth.

If the meatballs are, in fact, independent dish, which can be served with or without a side dish, while the sauce is not required, then the meatballs mean serving exactly in thick gravy certain recipe.

Summing up

So, meatballs and cutlets - what's the difference? In Russian cuisine, in fact, they are one and the same, only they have different forms: the first - oblong and flatter, the second - round and thicker.

As for meatballs, meatballs differ from them not only in shape, but also in preparation and serving.

Now we know how meatballs differ from cutlets, as well as meatballs.

Culinary products from meat, fish, poultry, game, vegetables, cereals. Cutlets from meat products subdivided into natural, chops and chopped; for natural and chops use the most delicate parts of pork, veal, lamb carcass(dorsal and lumbar), as well as fillet (breast) of old poultry and game. For chopped cutlets, you can also use coarser parts of beef, lamb and pork carcass, meat of old chickens. From fleshy fish with a small amount of bones (cod, catfish, pike, pike perch, burbot, etc.), chopped cutlets are prepared. It is inappropriate for this purpose to use sturgeon fish, salmon, eels, halibut.
Vegetable cutlets are made from pre-boiled potatoes, cabbage or carrots, cereals - from boiled rice, millet, semolina, barley, small pearl barley. characteristic feature chopped meat and fish cutlets and cutlets from cereals and vegetables is their shape - in the form of an oval cake.
Natural cutlets from veal, game chicken fillet, as well as chopped cutlets from beef, veal, fish are also cooked steamed and poached (see recipe). Cooking food).
To meat natural, chops and chopped cutlets served as a side dish boiled, fried potatoes or mashed potatoes green pea, pasta and crumbly cereals, as well as complex vegetable side dishes made up of a set of vegetables. To fish cakes- boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, crumbly rice. Vegetable and cereal cutlets are served without side dishes, but with sauces(see) - sour cream, milk and mushroom. Cereal cutlets are also served as a sweet dish; in this case, they are flavored with vanilla, cooked with a variety of sweet sauces, served hot or cold.
Cutlets natural and chops. For the preparation of these cutlets, semi-finished products of the same name are used. Without finished semi-finished products these cutlets can be cut across the grain of the loin with wide, beveled portioned pieces with rib bone. The best part loin adjacent to the kidney part (from the 1st to the 6th rib inclusive) is used for natural cutlets, and the rest of the loin - for chops.
Wash the loin, peel and cut into cutlets, as mentioned above, then lightly beat each cutlet, salt, pepper, dip in a beaten egg, roll in ground breadcrumbs. Put the cutlets in a frying pan heated with oil and fry for 15-20 minutes until cooked and golden brown. Ready chops are poured with oil before serving.
Natural cutlets are prepared in the same way, but do not roll in breadcrumbs.
Natural cutlets can be baked in milk sauce. To do this, they are fried, as mentioned above, then pour milk sauce on top, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in the oven.
Garnish: fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled vegetables(carrots, corn, cauliflower, green peas), seasoned with oil.
For 4 - 5 natural cutlets: 600 G loins, 60 G oils, salt, pepper - to taste.
For 4 - 5 chops: 600 G loins, 60 G butter, 1 egg, 60 G crackers, salt, pepper - to taste.
Chopped meat cutlets. Separate the meat from the bones, clean it from coarse tendons, cut into pieces, pass through a meat grinder, add stale soaked in cold water or milk White bread, salt, pepper (you can also fried or raw chopped onion or a clove of garlic), mix and pass everything together again through a meat grinder. When using lean meat or the meat of old animals, the cutlet mass often turns out to be too thick; to eliminate this drawback, add up to a 4 cups to it cold water or milk (you can cream). Divide the resulting cutlet mass into equal parts (approximately 50 - 60 G), give them an oval shape, roll in ground white breadcrumbs; it is good to heat the frying pan with fat, put the cutlets on the ground and fry on both sides until golden brown; then reduce the heat and bring the cutlets to readiness.
Cutlets are recommended to be fried just before serving.
Garnish: fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled carrots, turnips, beets, seasoned with butter or milk, sour cream sauce, color or White cabbage, green peas, pasta, crumbly porridge(cm.).
At 500 G meat (pulp): 125 G bread, 10 G salt, pepper on the tip of a knife, 3/4 cup water or milk, 1 onion (you can also 1 clove of garlic), 1/2 cup ground crackers, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of butter (or table margarine).
meatballs differ from cutlets only in shape: cutlets are oval, and meatballs are round. The meatballs are most often served with sour cream sauce (meatballs in sour cream), as well as with tomato sauce, red sauce, etc.
Schnitzel chopped cooked in the same way as cutlets, but without bread and give it a more flattened, flat “shape.
Rice cutlets. Weld viscous rice porridge in water, cool slightly, add sugar and eggs, stir, cut into cutlets, roll in breadcrumbs and fry in a pan with butter. Serve with sweet or mushroom sauce. If cutlets are served with mushroom sauce, then sugar is not added to the porridge.
For 2 cups of rice: 5 cups of water, 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 cup of crackers, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of oil.