Cutlets are loved by everyone who does not shy away from meat dishes. The housewives also respect them very much: if you fry a bigger pot, the family is provided with dinner for a week. However, cooking can also be frustrating. Even experienced cooks sometimes wonder why cutlets fall apart when fried. For novice housewives, an unsuccessful first experiment may even scare them away from the idea of delighting their loved ones with this dish. Meanwhile, difficulties can be overcome, and problems can be solved.
Each specific case may have its own details. However, according to the main factors, all situations can be divided into three groups.
All these negative factors are easily eliminated. Although, to avoid disappointment, it is better not to make mistakes from the very beginning. This means you need to make the right stuffing.
To prevent the cutlets from falling apart, you need to make the base for them yourself. Store-bought mince is always a roulette wheel, and most often the number that comes up in it is not yours. It is better to take chilled meat for minced meat. Frozen is not suitable in any case, but the freshest is still better to put in the refrigerator for an hour.
The next condition for successful preparation is diligent hand kneading. The minced meat should be as uniform as possible. When you are satisfied with its consistency, put the base in a bag and smack it hard on the table several times. The air will be knocked out of the minced meat, which also contributes to the collapse.
Classic ones are made with the addition of white bread. And it must be dry, otherwise it can also lead to the disintegration of the final product. Contrary to popular belief, the loaf should be soaked not in milk, but in warm water. Before placing it in it, the crusts are cut off from the bread.
The classic cutlet recipe includes eggs. Approximately one egg per half kilo of base. However, this point is controversial. Firstly, they can liquefy the minced meat even more if the meat is “wet”. And then you will have to thicken it with something. Secondly, there is no unity of opinion on whether to fully use them. Some chefs recommend using only yolks - they say they make the minced meat more elastic, while maintaining fluffiness and airiness. Others insist on using proteins alone - they are the ones that have astringent properties. Still others even consider minced eggs unnecessary. To decide who to join, try cooking cutlets according to all recipes and choose according to your taste.
What to add to the minced meat is up to the owner. Most cooks stick to the classic recipe. But if your cutlets stubbornly fall apart, try adding semolina to the base (a heaping spoonful per kilogram of minced meat), knead and leave for a quarter of an hour so that the cereal swells. A proven method: the cutlets will remain whole.
Grated fresh potatoes can be a very good astringent for minced meat. When it is added, there is no need for both eggs and bread, and the dish turns out fluffy, but dense.
When the question of why cutlets fall apart during frying loses its relevance for you, you can experiment with other fillers. Other introduced vegetables can add their own flavor: cabbage, carrots, zucchini. And to add airiness and piquancy, you can put a piece of butter or processed cheese inside the cutlet. Only breadcrumbs in this case should be used twice, with intermediate dipping of the cutlet into egg leison. Otherwise, the filling may leak out, frying its “shell” to the pan and robbing you of pleasure.
Cutlets can also fall apart due to mistakes at the final stage of cooking. Following the simplest rules will save you from grief.
According to the rules, a high fire is maintained under the frying pan until a “shell” is obtained from below. Then it is slightly muffled and the cutlet is left on the first side until the top turns gray - this means that the lower half is already completely ready. With the second side, manipulations are carried out according to the same rules.
Most often, housewives use breadcrumbs, both white and rye, to roll cutlets. However, if the patties continue to fall apart, try replacing them with flour to draw out excess moisture. Although, of course, you won’t get a crispy crust with flour.
Well, if the problem of why cutlets fall apart when fried has long been successfully solved, try pampering yourself with more exotic options. Cutlets rolled in finely crushed nuts are very tasty. And even more interesting would be a dish in which ground sesame was used for breading.
Traditionally, it was believed that the shape of the cutlets was preserved during heat treatment by adding eggs to the minced meat. Of course, no one is going to argue with this statement, but still, some wisdom will help make fried cutlets whole and beautiful even without eggs.
The first thing you should pay attention to when preparing minced meat is its composition, or rather the proportions of fatty and lean meat. To prevent the cutlets from falling apart, you need to take one part of beef or lean pork and mix it with a quarter of the volume of fatty meat. This way, less fat will melt during frying and the shape of the cutlets will be more accurate.
The meat needs to be rolled through a meat grinder and “beat” so that the cutlets do not fall apart during frying. To do this, take a handful of minced meat and sharply throw it to the bottom of the bowl, repeat this several times.
Next, you need to leave the white bread to soak in milk for 20 minutes, then take it out, squeeze it out and add it to the minced meat. The main thing is not to overdo it; too much bread in the minced meat, on the contrary, will cause the cutlets to crumble.
To ensure that the cutlets do not fall apart, you can add mashed potatoes and a couple of cabbage leaves to the resulting minced meat. Due to the starch contained in potatoes, the cutlets will retain their shape, and cabbage will make them more tender and juicy.
Now you can add a couple of eggs, salt, chopped onion, pepper to taste, mix thoroughly, roll in breading and place on a hot frying pan.
If you started making cutlets, but at the very last moment you discovered that there are no eggs in the refrigerator, don’t worry. I know how to keep your cutlets from falling apart in the pan. Instead of eggs, you can add a little semolina to the cutlet mass, at the rate of two tablespoons per half kilogram. After you mix the cauldron mixture well, let it stand for 10 minutes so that the semolina swells slightly.
It will be ideal if you add less white bread to the cutlets, taking into account the amount of semolina added.
Fry the cutlets in the usual way. When I fried these cutlets, they turned out very tasty and juicy, and most importantly, they did not fall apart during frying.
Sometimes the cutlets simply fall apart in a frying pan when frying, or, on the contrary, they come out tough and slightly dry, with a grayish color. Of course, you want to avoid both and prepare a truly appetizing dish so that it not only tastes amazing but also looks beautiful. How can this be achieved?
We prepare delicious cutlets.
If your cutlets fall apart in the frying pan or, on the contrary, they turn out hard and dry, perhaps it’s all about the proportions of the minced meat. So for one kilogram of any boneless meat you should add stale white bread in an amount of 250 grams. The bread must first be soaked in 300 ml of water or You can use milk instead of water. You should also add onions, 20 g of salt, and ground black pepper to taste and your desire.
✿Quite often, many housewives add eggs to the minced meat. This doesn't always come in handy. Both meat and eggs contain a lot of protein, and when frying, protein absorbs moisture and coagulates. At the same time, the minced meat itself shrinks quite significantly, releasing juice and it is from this that the cutlets turn out to be tough and dry.
✿Eggs should be added when the minced meat turns out runny. If the minced meat is completely normal in consistency, you should not add eggs. It is on this basis that it is best to soak bread not in milk (after all, there is also enough protein there), but simply in water.
✿When you pass the meat through a meat grinder, its temperature rises slightly (by three to five degrees). An increase in temperature greatly contributes to the more successful development of various microorganisms. And in order for the minced meat to not have such a high temperature after leaving the meat grinder, the piece of meat must be pre-cooled before processing.
Bread should be added to the minced meat when it is stale and without burnt crusts. After you have soaked the bread in milk or water for 10-15 minutes, it will retain moisture well. You should not squeeze a piece of bread too much after soaking it, otherwise it will no longer be distributed evenly in the minced meat and this will accordingly deprive the minced meat of the necessary juiciness. But if the bread is soft or still fresh, this leads to the cutlet mass becoming sticky. 
✿The sharpness of the knives of your meat grinder largely affects the juiciness of the cutlets. So, dull knives in a meat grinder will not cut meat, but will only mash it, as a result of which the meat will lose its juiciness.
✿Minced cutlet cooked with raw onions and garlic must be fried immediately, i.e. immediately after its preparation. And in order for your cutlets to be much tastier and more tender, just before breading them in breadcrumbs, you should moisten them with broth.
And for you, as a bonus, a video recipe for making chicken Kiev.
Not only novice young housewives, but even experienced ones, have cases when the cutlets begin to fall apart when frying. What is the reason, how to avoid this phenomenon?
There are several reasons why this trouble occurs.
The correct consistency of the minced meat (its composition). The minced meat should not be liquid. To avoid this you need to add additional components.
For example:
Semolina. It may happen that there is no bread in the house. Then you can use semolina. If you have a kilogram of minced meat, then a tablespoon of semolina is enough. It needs to be mixed well with the minced meat. And then leave the semolina to swell for a couple of hours.
Potato. You can also replace bread and semolina with potatoes. It needs to be grated on a fine grater and mixed thoroughly with minced meat. Instead of potatoes, you can add other vegetables, such as carrots or cabbage. The addition of vegetables gives the cutlets a special and unique taste.
Adding eggs. According to the advice of experienced housewives, it is better to add not a whole egg, but only the yolks. But this advice only applies to meat cutlets. If you have vegetable or fish cutlets, you can add the whole egg.
To make the cutlets strong and tasty, as well as juicy, you need to beat the minced meat. During the beating process, the meat fibers soften, and the minced meat becomes uniform and smooth, which is very important. Meat juice also forms in the minced meat, which makes the cutlets juicy inside and with a crispy crust on top.
Attention! The process of beating minced meat is simple. Divide the total mass into several small pieces. Make flat cutlets out of them; there is no need to make them thin. Now pick it up and throw it forcefully on the table.
To avoid staining the countertop, use a cutting board. Ideally, each such cake should be thrown forty times. If you don't have time, do this at least 20 times. The purpose of this process is so that the minced meat does not crack when struck, but spreads over the board. The result is soft, smooth and uniform minced meat. Your cutlets will certainly not fall apart when frying.
The frying pan in which you are going to fry the cutlets needs to be well heated and only after it has heated up, pour in the oil. This is if you have a regular frying pan and not a non-stick one.
After you have formed the cutlets, you need to roll them in breading (this can be semolina, flour or breadcrumbs). The breading will retain the original shape of the cutlets and prevent them from falling apart. If your minced meat is of a delicate consistency (for example, chicken fillet with cream or shrimp), then it is better to double bread it.
To do this, prepare two bowls. In one, beat the egg and salt a little, and in the other add the breading. Take a cutlet, dip on all sides first in the egg, then in breadcrumbs.
Repeat this action again. Then immediately transfer to a heated frying pan. You need to fry quickly on both sides. Double breading will hold the capricious minced meat well and firmly.
If your minced meat turns out to be too liquid, don’t even start fixing it with breading, it won’t work anyway. Heat a frying pan with oil, take a spoon and spread the minced meat with it, you will get meat pancakes.
Keep your hands wet when shaping the cutlets. This will prevent the minced meat from sticking to your hands, and will also maintain the smooth texture of the product itself. Place a bowl of water nearby, it will make it more convenient to wake you up. Also make sure that no flour or crackers get into the cutlet itself when forming them. This will definitely lead to the cutlet falling apart during frying.
Another secret is to let the cooked minced meat sit in the refrigerator for several hours. If you follow these tips, your cutlets will definitely not fall apart when frying!
Sometimes they simply fall apart in a frying pan when frying, or, on the contrary, they come out hard and slightly overdried, with a grayish color. Of course, you want to avoid both and prepare a truly appetizing dish so that it not only tastes amazing but also looks beautiful. How can this be achieved?
If your cutlets fall apart in a frying pan or, on the contrary, they turn out hard and dry, perhaps it’s all a matter of proportions. So, for one kilogram of any boneless meat you should add 250 grams of stale white bread. The bread must first be soaked in 300 ml of water, or milk can be used instead of water. You should also add onions, 20 g of salt, and ground black pepper to taste and your desire.
Quite often, many housewives add eggs to the minced meat. This doesn't always come in handy. Both meat and meat contain a lot of protein, and when frying, protein absorbs moisture and coagulates. At the same time, the minced meat itself shrinks quite significantly, releasing juice and it is from this that the cutlets turn out to be tough and dry.
