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J. Kenji López-Alt was looking for the secret to an evenly golden, puffed schnitzel. He found it, and his recipe puts a new spin on an Austrian technique.
SEATTLE — It’s 1 a.m., and I’m standing at the stove, swirling my wok and watching waves of melted lard pass over a pork cutlet that is verging on the perfect shade of gold.
Jamón, my shar-pei and the primary taste-tester for this particular recipe, looks up at me, and I note the satisfying similarity between his thick, ribbonlike folds and the gentle waves of crust on my cutlet.
I retrieve the cutlet from the hot fat and transfer it to a plate lined with paper towels, gently blotting oil from its surface, and pause for a moment to respond to my wife, Adri, who’s texting me from bed to ask when I’ll be finished. Even with full ventilation, the smells of my late-night frying marathons have been enough to keep her up at night.
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I scrape the crust with the back of my knife and note its satisfying rasp, then cut it open. Steam wafts out, and the thin cutlet glistens with juiciness in its golden cave. Jamón taps his paws impatiently. “This is the one,” I think. “Perfect schnitzel.”
I should back up for a moment and explain exactly what I mean by “perfect” schnitzel, as it’s hardly a black-and-white subject.
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