Frikadelle — a pan-fried German minced-meat patty

Principiante

Frikadellen — German Fried Meat Patties

Name: Frikadellen — German Fried Meat Patties
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: German
Ingredients: 500 g Minced pork; 1 Stale bread roll; 1 Onion, finely chopped; 1 Egg; 1 tbsp German mustard; 1 tsp Dried marjoram; 1 tsp Sweet paprika; Salt and black pepper; Oil or clarified butter for frying

Flat, pan-fried patties of minced pork bound with a soaked bread roll, onion and mustard — crisp-edged outside, soft within. Eaten hot with potato salad or cold in a bread roll the next day.

Fonte

Ricetta di German home kitchens · 🏺 Tradizionale · Everyday German household cooking — the pan-German home table shared across the regions

German home-style · traditional patty — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article defines a Frikadelle as a rounded, flat-bottomed pan-fried patty of ground meat (pork, veal, beef, lamb or fish) mixed with onion, egg, milk or water, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and records at least sixteen regional names including Berlin's Bulette and Bavaria's Fleischpflanzerl. This recipe soaks the bread in water to keep it dairy-free. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

dirndl kitchen Clementine Guillermo Rubia Jr.

⏱ 40 min🍽 4 porzioni🔥 380 kcal🇩🇪 Germania

Senza latticiniSenza frutta a guscio

Passaggi

Soak the bread roll in water for a few minutes, then squeeze it as dry as you can and shred it. Soften the chopped onion in a little oil for 3–4 minutes so it is not raw, then let it cool.
💡 Softening the onion first is a small step with a big payoff — raw onion stays crunchy and sharp in the middle of the patty.
In a bowl, mix the pork, shredded bread, cooled onion, egg, mustard, marjoram, paprika, salt and pepper. Work it with your hands until it is even and slightly sticky.
With wet hands, shape into 8 patties about 2 cm thick and flatten them slightly. They should be flat-bottomed ovals, not spheres.
Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Fry the patties for about 5 minutes a side, pressing them gently once, until deep golden-brown and cooked through with no pink in the middle.
💡 Medium heat, not high. They need long enough to cook through to the centre, and high heat burns the crust before that happens.
Serve hot with potato salad, mashed potato or bread and mustard. Cold leftovers, sliced into a crusty roll, are a beloved lunchbox and picnic staple.

💡 Consigli

Germany has at least sixteen regional names for this patty — Bulette in Berlin, Fleischpflanzerl in Bavaria, Bratklops elsewhere. The recipe barely changes; only the word does.
For juicier patties, mix in a second soaked roll and do not overwork the meat once the egg is in — too much kneading makes them bouncy and tight.