What are Cutlets and what do you do with them.

I'm talking about cutlets today.  Many new and inexperienced cooks are probably wondering, what is a cutlet?

A cutlet usually refers to a small thin boneless cut of meat.  That piece of meat may be chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, beef or veal.  These pieces of meat can be sliced very thin or pounded out to be thin.  I will go through the process of pounding out meat in tomorrow's blog.

The reason for using cutlets in cooking is they cook quickly and you can do many different things with them.  These cutlets, depending on the recipe, can be cooked uncoated, simply dredged in flour and shakened or breaded with flour and/or bread crumbs.

The cooking process for cutlets is sauteing in a pan on top of the stove.  Depending on which method above you choose to use will dictate the need and amount of butter or oil needed to do the cooking.  It is a quick cooking method and usually only takes a few minutes per side.

Many of the recipes will use the pan to then make a sauce to top or serve with the cutlet.  Again these are quick sauces.

Each type of cuisine in the world seems to have recipes for these cutlets.  Italian cuisine uses mainly veal and chicken in their recipes, whereas the Germans lean towards pork in their's.  However, many of the ethnic recipes can be changed to your meat preference when cooking.  The chicken and turkey tend to be healthier choices.

You can make the cutlet to the size you desire, but they usually range between 3 and 6 ounces.  One cutlet is generally enough for one serving, although it may make sense to cook a few extra for another meal when planning your weekly menu.  You can freeze them as well for future meals.

In fact, it may make sense to cut or pound out a larger quantity of the cutlets and individually freeze for future meals.  To do this, simply place the cutlet on a sheet pan making sure not to have them touching each other.  Place the sheet pan in the freezer for 2 to 4 hours and then place the cutlets in a large zip-lock freezer bag.  This way you can pull out the number needed for a meal whenever they are needed and not have to thaw out the whole bag.  It really makes cooking quick and easy when individually freezing items for those future meals.  Also this can save you money by buying a larger package of product.

Because most cutlets don't come already packaged in the store this way, tomorrow I'll walk you through the process on pounding out these cutlets to meet your needs.  On Friday and Saturday this week, I'll have a few recipes using different cutlet meats for you to try.  Have a great day and continue to spread the link for this blog.