The National Dish of Austria
Wiener Schnitzel mit Beilagen

My grandmother Maria Theresa Guttenthaler, 1898-1988 used to make Wiener Schnitzel in her little apartment in Linz a.d. Donau. I remember many summers of my early youth, going to her Schraeber Garten on the banks of the Danube and picking the lettuce and tomatoes that would end up on our plates that nite. Well a Wiener Schnitzel, or Viennese Cutlet, is in fact the National dish of my mothers homeland. Traditionally it is served with lemon wedges, parsley, and whole berry cranberry sauce as garnishes. The cutlet is very large, (having been pounded out) and covers the whole plate. "Mit Beilagen" implies that it is served with side salads. I like to serve rice with it as well. The typical salads are, red beet, cucumber, potato, green leaf lettuce, a kind of a slaw, kidney beans, and tomato. I will add the recipes of those salads as time permits. The simplest are the tomato and red bean salad. There are many variations on Schnitzels in general, regionally in Europe and even within Austria. A Jaeger Schnitzel has a brown mushroom sauce, a la Holstein has a sunny side up egg over it, and a Puszta Schnitzel has a mélange of peppers and onions served over the cutlet. The biggest debate that rages among the culinary crowd is the veal vs. pork debate. Let me shed some light on this subject. Years ago, both veal and pork were plentiful in Austria, the cattle and dairy farmers of the high alps even would trade their best young veal calves for a nice fat sow. As times grew tougher veal was rarer, it was not economical to slaughter a calf.....but pork, well, as my good friend John Willingham says, "everything in life I need to know, I learned from a pig." So as time went by, a sign of wealth was often indicated by inviting guests for dinner and serving veal schnitzel. My Omi, always preferred pork, so even when times were good and my dad would buy the veal, she would always have the butcher cut her a small pork cutlet and she would make it for herself.
Now here we are in affluent North America and the animal rights activists are (maybe rightfully) telling us we shouldn't eat veal, although free range veal is readily available and delicious; because of the inhumane treatment of the poor calves. Some of the best pork I have ever had I got at a butcher shop on the Central West Coast of Florida, near Punta Gorda. The pork was so sweet it almost aromatic. I asked the butcher about it and he said that the hog farm was next to a huge orange juice pressing operation and the pigs were fed orange rinds as a supplement to their diet. Clearly the veal/pork debate rages on.

INGREDIENTS:

several pork or veal cutlets, figure on two per person, three if Greg Wood is dining with you.
Have the butcher cut them at no thicker than a 1/4 inch, esp. pork.
Plain Bread crumbs ( you can of course make these yourselves like my Omi did, but I cheat)
eggs-well beaten add some milk if you like ( at least 2 or three)
flour ( a cup or two)
salt
vegetable oil ( enough to cover your pan to a 1/2 inch depth)
and the above mentioned garnishes

UTENSILS:
I strongly recommend that you have a large well seasoned cast iron skillet on hand.
some deep dishes for coating the cutlets
a meat pounder (it will also be helpful to have a Homecoming Queen on hand to beat your meat, because as we all know, the HQ's are best at this. They don't put out...but they will help you to beat your meat.)
a big board or surface for beating

PREPARATION:
Pound the cutlets to 1/8 inch thickness creating a "waffle" pattern on the meat. (this will help the coatings to adhere.)
VERY lightly salt the cutlets, I mean very lightly, and if you are on a low salt diet (ugh) you may omit this step.
The Dredge Report:
Coat the cutlets in flour first, making sure to coat thinly but evenly
Dip the cutlets in the egg mixture, again coating evenly. (It starts to get messy here but its fun, ask Chris Morrissey to help you)
Finally, lay the cutlet on a bed of bread crumbs and cover them completely with the bread crumbs.
heat the oil to a medium high, maybe a 6 or 7 (not smoking, just hot)
Fry the cutlets until they are golden and quickly serve them to your starving guests.

I like to serve a dry rose' with Schnitzel, although a nice Riesling will work as well.

SALADS:

Coming Soon...

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