Ground Beef Cutlets with Cheese Filling

Name: Ground Beef Cutlets with Cheese Filling Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Beef (boneless) 400 g; Potato 1-2; Egg 1; Breadcrumbs 2-3 tbsp (15–23 g); Hard cheese 50 g; Parsley 4-5 sprigs; Butter 50 g; Salt, black pepper, red pepper, coriander to taste

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Beef dishes are generally considered tough and slow to cook. Ground beef cutlets prove the opposite: they are tender, very juicy and take no longer than the familiar homemade pork cutlets, fried in breading. For various reasons, many people do not eat pork. So similar dishes made from beef or veal easily replace pork ones in everyday meals.

Strictly speaking, patties made from ground meat are not cutlets. In world cuisines, a cutlet is a whole piece of meat cut with the rib bone, as well as various portioned dishes made from such meat. The French terms are côtelé, “ribbed,” and côte, “rib,” hence côtelette, the cutlet. Here, a cutlet is almost always a ground meat patty with various additions, cooked in different ways and shaped like a flat cake. Still, there is also the bone-in pounded cutlet, which fully matches the “real” cutlet.

Homemade beef cutlets are quite simple to make. Modern electric meat grinders and choppers turn even tough meat into excellent ground meat. The texture and size of the meat pieces in the mince can vary widely. The ground meat is mixed with spices and additions, and then dishes are made from it. By the way, if the meat is ground finely enough, you do not need binders such as eggs, flour or starch for frying.

If you compare recipes for various dishes made from fried ground meat, you will notice that beef cutlets are very similar to crispy breaded fried croquettes, or to beef meatballs, which are baked in the oven. Many such dishes are formed with a filling, by putting a piece of butter, cheese, herbs and so on inside the meat. Think of chicken Kyiv – it has a filling of butter and herbs inside.

The best cuts are usually not used for ground meat, which is made from trimmings and small pieces that are hard to turn into a steak. Fattier meat is also better, so the ground beef cutlets come out juicier.

To keep the cutlets from falling apart while frying, a binder is added to the ground meat. Most often it is an egg or egg white. Often white bread soaked in milk, breadcrumbs, or just a little flour are added as well. This makes the mince denser, and the cutlets hold their shape while frying. There is a good way to keep patties intact without such additions: grind the meat more finely, so the mince has a “fine” structure. Then it holds itself together, and the ground beef cutlets stay whole.

8 ingredientsTo the recipe

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Ingredients

2 servings

Beef (boneless) 400 g
Potato 1-2
Egg 1
Breadcrumbs 2-3 tbsp
(15–23 g)
Hard cheese 50 g
Parsley 4-5 sprigs
Butter 50 g
Salt, black pepper, red pepper, coriander to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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For the ground meat you can use beef shoulder or the hind part. Stores often sell goulash packs made of fairly large pieces of meat, as well as so-called “sauté meat,” small trimmings. Any option works, though the meat should ideally have a little fat and no bones, tendons or connective tissue membranes. And of course the meat should be fresh, but not “warm” (just slaughtered). Making ground beef cutlets from freshly slaughtered meat is quite difficult, with some nuances.
Since ground beef is fairly dense, we decided to add a filler: boiled potato. Boil or bake a large potato in advance, then cool and peel it. Trim the beef thoroughly of bones and membranes, if there are any. Pass it through a meat grinder with a fine plate twice, or better three times. If you can, grind it further with a blender, which makes the mince “finer” and slightly sticky. Mix the ground meat with the potato flesh.
Separate the egg yolk from the white. Keep the white, as you will need it for dipping the beef cutlets before frying, and add the yolk to the mince. Add finely chopped parsley as well, leaves only. Salt the mince and add ground black pepper and ground coriander to taste. I recommend adding a pinch of coarsely ground dried chili or a spice blend for meat, which is very aromatic.
Knead the ground beef thoroughly, making sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed. The mince is dense and only slightly sticky, yet soft and easy to knead. Ground meat is often left to rest for a while, as it is believed to “mature.” Here, that is not necessary.
From this amount of meat we made four cutlets. At first glance they look large, but the meat shrinks a little during frying and the patties become round. Grate a piece of hard cheese, ideally one with a slightly sharp, pronounced flavor. Divide all the mince into four parts and shape round flat cakes 1.5 cm thick. Put the grated cheese on each cake.
Wrap the mince around the cheese filling, making sure there are no holes or tears. All the cheese must stay inside the mince. When shaping the ground beef cutlets, you can moisten your hands slightly with water. Shape the cutlets into round, flattened patties and put them on a plate. By the way, if you like, you can make the cutlets smaller by dividing the mince and filling evenly into as many portions as you want.
Pour the remaining egg white into a cup and add 1 tsp of water. Mix the mixture thoroughly with a fork. Prepare the breadcrumbs. It is better not to use store-bought ones, which are often of poor quality, but to grate a dry loaf or baguette and then sift it. Dip the cutlets in the egg white, then coat them in the breadcrumbs.
Heat the butter in a frying pan. Put the cutlets into the butter and fry over medium heat until a golden crust forms. Then turn the cutlets over and fry the second side. Turn them very carefully, because hot butter can splatter.
Once a golden crust has formed on both sides, turn the cutlets over once more and cover the pan with a lid. Reduce the heat to the minimum and cook them under the lid for 20 mins, turning occasionally. You can judge doneness by time, or by the melted cheese filling, which may seep out of small cracks or pores in the mince. Alternatively, pierce the meat with a toothpick, and the melted cheese will stick to the wood.
The finished cutlets are rounder than the raw ones. In shape they resemble Italian mondeghili meatballs, but with a melted cheese filling. I always thought mashed potatoes were the best side for cutlets. This time we boiled wild rice and unpolished parboiled rice and fried it with soy sauce, and it turned out very tasty.
Put the fried rice on a plate, shaped into little balls, along with the cutlets, a few herbs and pickled vegetables. If you like, you can put a small piece of butter on each hot cutlet. Serve the cutlets hot. If they are not overcooked, the mince under the dark golden breading is a pleasant pink shade, yet fully cooked.