Austrian · Main
Schnitzel
Plate-wide crisp pork in a wavy soufflé crumb — shaken, not pressed, in the pan — Holstein-style with an egg and caper butter
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- Pork loin steaks — 4 x 170 g, fat trimmed
- Plain flour — 80 g
- Free-range eggs — 3 (2 for pané, plus 4 for frying)
- Fine white breadcrumbs — 180 g
- Neutral oil — 400 ml
- Unsalted butter — 80 g (30 g pan, 50 g sauce)
- Capers — 30 g, rinsed
- Lemon — 2 (40 ml juice; wedges to serve)
- Flat-leaf parsley — 10 g, chopped
- Fine sea salt — 7 g; black pepper — 2 g
Method
- Bat each steak between cling film to 5 mm with a flat mallet. Season both sides.
- Pané: flour, beaten egg, then crumbs — lay the crumbs on loosely, never pressing; the crust should billow.
- Heat 400 ml oil with 30 g butter in a wide pan to 170°C (a crumb fizzes instantly).
- Fry one schnitzel at a time, 90 seconds per side, swirling and spooning fat over so the crust puffs into waves. Drain on a rack; salt. Hold at 90°C in the oven.
- Fry 4 eggs in a separate pan in a little of the schnitzel fat, 2–3 minutes.
- Sauce: brown 50 g butter, 2–3 minutes; off heat, add capers, lemon juice and parsley.