I have always loved the wiener schnitzel served in good German restaurants. The buttery taste of the thin, pounded breaded veal is delightful, as is the hot German potato salad, or spatzle (German noodles), and the sweet and tart braised red cabbage, and sometimes cinnamon seasoned warm applesauce.
Marie used to make stacked platters of wiener schnitzel for our kids, along with lots of buttered noodles and home made applesauce. They absolutely loved it and devoured it in quantity. In fact, Marie and I enjoyed lots of it at a great German restaurant named Max’s®, in Pittsburgh PA, very close to the Allegheny General Hospital where my mother was undergoing a triple bypass operation for clogged arteries. Go figure.
Various folks I know will not eat veal for personal reasons, and yet others will not eat breaded or coated meats fried in butter for health reasons. Ah well, to each his own … but keep reading.
Veal is fairly expensive when purchased as scaloppini slices, raw, which is the best form of veal to use for making wiener schnitzel. Back in 2010 the price, even at Costco®, was around $10 per pound. But I don't even bother looking at veal prices anymore.
I decided some years ago to try to duplicate wiener schnitzel with slices of pork loin. Let me tell you the taste and texture, inside and out, are so good using lean pork that I have trouble telling the difference. In fact, lean pounded pork is easily as tender and moist as the veal. Best of all, it only costs about $2 per pound, purchased as a boneless whole pork loin.
Thus, Pork Schnitzel, a very common dish in Germany, was developed my way in my kitchen, and I have had no interest in veal ever since. Now you too can clog your arteries as I have mine, with a smile and a great sense of satisfaction from eating excellent food inexpensively.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. of boneless pork loin
1/3 to 1 lb. of butter (or more based on how many skillets full of coated pork you fry)
2 cups (or a bit more) of Keebler® Club Cracker (tm) crumbs
1/2 cup of corn meal
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1 tsp. of ground black pepper
1 tsp. of Sea salt (fine)
1 extra large or jumbo egg
1 oz. of water
Directions:
Make whatever side dishes you plan to make for this meal before cooking the pork. Buttered noodles or hot German potato salad are naturals, as are hot applesauce and/or sweet and tart braised red cabbage. There is a recipe for the braised cabbage in Food Nirvana and also for the hot German potato salad. Keep the hot side dishes covered in plastic wrap in a warm oven. See below.
Turn on your oven to 200ºF and put a large dinner plate or small meat platter into it that will be used to hold the schnitzel. Put in the dinner plates you will use when you serve the dinner. Also, put your prepared side dishes, covered with plastic wrap, into the oven.
Cut away any layer of fat on the pork loin and discard it. Slice the pork loin crossways into slices between 1/2" and 5/8" thick.
Use a kitchen mallet with a metal knurled or indented wood surface used to pound meat. Pound each slice of pork on both sides on a hard surface like a granite kitchen counter or a wood cutting board until it is about 1/4" thick. Pound gently from one side to the other and over the entire first surface to do about half of the reduction in thickness. Then turn the slice over and repeat the process on the second side until the right thickness is obtained.
Repeat the above pounding process for all the pork slices, placing and then stacking the individual thinned pieces of pork onto a large dinner plate.
Use a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag to hold enough Keebler® Club Crackers (tm) and other dry ingredients to make about three cups of finely ground crumbs. Close the bag leaving as little air inside as possible. Crush the contents using the kitchen mallet and then open the bag and eliminate as much air as you can and then reseal the bag.
Use your rolling pin or the kitchen mallet to finish the process of crushing the crackers into very fine crumbs. Add the salt and the pepper to the bag and mix well by shaking it.
Make an egg wash. Break the raw egg into a wide shallow bowl and whisk it for about 30 seconds. Add the ounce of water and again whisk for 30 seconds.
Pour the cracker crumb mixture into a separate large shallow bowl (or as much as the bowl can hold) and spread it evenly.
Using a dinner fork, put a slice of pounded pork into the egg wash, coating both sides. Lift it out with the fork and let the excess egg wash run off back into the egg wash bowl.
Lay the pork slice on top of the cracker crumb mixture, then press down with the flat side of the fork over the whole surface to cause the cracker crumb mixture to adhere to the underside of the pork slice. Flip the pork over on to the second side with the fork and again press down all over the surface of the pork. If necessary you can spoon some extra crumb coating on top of the slice and press it into the meat with a finger or two to get total even coverage of the crumb mixture.
Remove the pork slice with the fork, holding it above the crumb bowl and shaking it gently to get excess crumbs to fall back into the bowl.
Put the crumb coated pork slice onto a separate large plate.
Spread the cracker crumb mixture out evenly in the bowl and repeat the above process starting with dipping a pork slice into the egg wash, until all the pork slices have been coated and placed on top of each other on the plate.
Use a large (12" to 14" diameter) non-stick skillet and heat it on medium heat with 1/3 stick of butter. Spread the melted butter around the inside of the skillet with a spatula.
When the butter is starting to bubble, place as many pieces of the coated pork into the skillet as you can, but only one layer deep, but do not let the slices touch each other.
After two minutes put a few teaspoons of butter between the pork pieces, then turn the slices over with the dinner fork, on top of the melting butter pieces, and again cook for two minutes. Repeat turning over the slices as necessary, but without adding any more butter, until the schnitzel has a nice light golden color on both sides.
Remove the warming plate/platter from the oven. Move the finished pork schnitzel pieces to the warmed plate or small meat platter, and then return the plate/platter to the warming oven.
Clean the skillet quickly with hot water and a dish cloth to remove butter and crumb residue, and wipe it dry with a paper towel. Return it to the stove. Add 1/3 stick of butter and repeat the above cooking process until all of the slices of raw coated pork have been cooked and placed on the warming plate/platter.
Discard any unused egg wash and/or crumb coating mixture. Do not reuse them.
Serve the hot pork schnitzel and the side dishes you prepared earlier.
Cold beer is a nice beverage to serve with this meal. Cold sodas are fine also. Some folks love a chilled somewhat sweet wine like Reisling.
Your guests will be very happy. You will be too.