Cutlets

Ingredients

• the cutlets
• the fat heated to the degree
• a good spoonful of white sauce
• a good-sized piece of butter
• a little better than a teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley

Method

1. 1

   Heat the fat to 350° upwards.

2. 2

   Place the cutlets in a wire basket and plunge them into the fat for about thirty seconds until they are a rich, delicate brown.

3. 3

   Prepare the macedoines by warming them in a saucepan with white sauce or butter and parsley.

4. 4

   Serve the cutlets arranged around the macedoines.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c (1880), page 141. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Cutlets also can be fried in oil. Cooks do not realise how very much greater the heat of fat should be than the_ tempera- ture of boiling water. The kind of fat used is immaterial. It may be good beef dripping, butter, lard, or oil, and very little difference is there between them. One essential is that they should be properly heated. Sir Henry Thomp- son, in his book on food, states that the temperature should be 500°. I feel consi- derable difficulty in differing from so very high an authority on a matter of science, but I do think this heat some- what excessive. We will suppose the cutlets are now prepared. The cook should be requested to wait until she sees the dirty fish plates making their appearance, showing that the fish course has been eaten. Then take the cutlets, place them in a wire basket; and plunge them into the fat heated to the degree I HOUSEKEEPER'S GUIDE. 95 have mentioned — namely, from 350° upwards. It would probably astonish a great many “ good plain cooks ” to be told that thirty seconds is sufficient to cook the cutlets. Should they have been cut as thin as I have mentioned, and should the fat be heated to the degree named, this will be sufficient — a little over thirty seconds will cook the cutlets. When done they should be a rich, deli- cate brown colour, and the inside when exit will* be red and very hot. In the meantime the macedoines must be pre- pared. I would remind cooks that, as perhaps a minute or two will elapse between the time when the cutlets are taken from the fat and handed round in the dining-room, the cooldng process of the meat continues for a considerable period after the cutlets have been taken outof the fat. Weall kuowthat if an egg, which consists of albumen, is cracked the instant it is taken from the saucepan, the white will be slightly fluid. But if we allow the egg to remain three or four minutes before it is opened it will be, comparatively speaking, hard. The simple reason is that the cooking pro- cess goes on in the egg, which has only been exposed to a temperature of 212°, whereas the cutlets have been exposed to a temperature of nearly 400°, conse- quently when the cutlet is takerf out of tne fat the meat inside still continues to feel the effect of the heat, which causes the cooking to go on in all direc- tions equally. It is quite possible that were you to take the cutlet out of the fat, throw it on to a plate, and cut it open, it would be blue in the middle. Wait two minutes and the cutlet will cease to be blue. The tin of macedoines should be warmed-up in a small enamel- led saucepan. The macedoines may be first heated in the tin itself, and the liquor strained off, or the macedoines themselves turned into a saucepan. Then a good spoonful of white sauce should be added to them, or, still better, sauce supreme. When good white sauce cannot be obtained add a good- sized piece of butter. Toss the mace- doines lightly together, and add a little better than a teaspoonful of finely chop- ed parsle

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.