2023-06-05 12:18:20
Even more than the Five Days of 1848, the symbol that opposes Milan to the “former Austrian invader” today has the shape of a steaming breaded steak. Schnitzel against Wiener Schnitzel, in short, in a “battle of the origins” that not even the wars of independence have managed to settle and put down.
First of all, the definition: cutlet/cutlet, indicates a “rib of a small animal with meat attached to it”: and here we come first with the big difference with the Schnitzel, given by the presence of the bone in the canonical Lombard version and the absence in the Austrian one, where the meat is beaten much thinner with a mallet, then stretched out like an elephant’s ear.
However, it is not true that the Viennese is exclusively pork: veal is also used for it, if not in particular versions such as the Schnitzel Wiener Art, the Schnitzel vom Schwein or the Surschnitzel, the latter with smoked pork. The rumor according to which it was Marshal Radetzky, stationed in the Lombardo Veneto since 1831, who introduced the “Milanese Schnitzel” to the emperor Cecco Beppe must also be denied: at the time the “Wiener” was already universally known.
The oldest documentary traces, however, they are certainly Lombard: a Benedictine Glossary of 1739 traces a “parvus lumbus feu imbrex porci”, which in turn recalls the lumbolos cum panitio atque porcellos plenos present in a Milanese menu of 1148 where the panitio indicates the breading of ” a small loin of pork on the fire” (this latter document from the Basilica Ambrosiana is also mentioned by Pietro Verri in his History of Milan).
Surprise, the cutlet was invented in Naples (thanks to the French)
by Luca Cesari
In the meantime, veal has established itself as the only legitimately designated meat for Milanese: the Touring Club’s 1931 Gastronomic Guide to Italy already recommended “Brianzoli veal” and warned against “poor counterfeits that only vaguely resemble it”, writing that “the authentic Milanese cutlet is made with meat taken from the (in French carré) that is from the region of the ribs; each cutlet retains the bony stem to which the meat part adheres in a weather vane. Pounded and dipped in beaten egg, breaded and fried in butter, the golden, tender, appetizing cutlet appears on the table decorated with a paper hedgehog, “garnished” with crispy fried potatoes, flanked by a slice of lemon».
Today the technique has evolved and so have historic trattorias such as Masuelli they offer it lighter and with panko breading. Also ended up in the sandwich, in the guise of street-food, the breaded bread is an instrument of national pride: even, Giuseppe Mussi mentions it in 1882 in Parliament, convinced that «the Milanese cutlet and the panettone have to conquer the civilized world very earlier and more completely than the armies of Bismarck”.
Schnitzel yes, but from Vienna: here’s where to eat the best
by Jeanne Perego
Among the “poor counterfeits”, however, there are also two curious versions that have fully entered the historical memory of Milan: the “milanesine in carpione” – boneless slices breaded and preserved in marinade – and the poor “pan dorà”, a sort of “breaded bread without meat” , flavored only with a slice of lard. The cutlet, in the broadest sense, has taken on a national character thanks to the various regional variations, starting with the breaded steak, or “slice”, made with the rounder and already present in Roman restaurants at the end of the nineteenth century (for bone purists, in the capital you can find fried lamb chops instead). Other known versions are the Valdostana (closed in a pocket with Fontina and cooked ham) and the Bolognese, which is thought to have already existed in the 1600s and is later mentioned in the work by Artusi. His Science in the Kitchen recommends preparing it «with lemon juice, pepper, salt and very little grated Parmesan»: it is completed with «slices of truffles and on top of these some slices of Parmesan or Gruyere». Today it is mostly made with raw ham and Parmesan (only possibly with the addition of truffles). The “Venetian” cutlet, on the other hand, is made with boneless veal, marinated for two hours before cooking in oil, lemon and onion; also in Palermo, it is prepared in oil, breaded with breadcrumbs but without eggs, while for the Piacenza faldìa (fried again in butter) horse diaphragm is used.
La Grissinopoli (from the name with which Emilio Salgari called Turin) on the other hand, it is the version that has taken hold under the Mole, with breadcrumbs of raw crumbled breadsticks, which give thickness and crunchiness.
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