tonkatsu adventure
for a lark i made tonkatsu on saturday
here is a quick record of what happened and i suppose what i "learned"
1. prep
cut off all the fat lining the tonkatsu like the book said since it might make it curl
"lightly salt", i first put very little salt on the thing
i dumped a whole bottle of veggie oil in a pot, didn't get to their "3 inches", but it worked well enough i guess?
i heated up the oil, i've no oil thermometer so i used their metric, and dropped some batter (for me egg/flour) to see what would happen
when it got what seemed to be what the book wanted i put a cutlet in
2. Cutlets 1-2
in a word, disaster
shit bubbled and made a noise someting fierce and got black in like... 10 seconds
i pulled it out and it was a charcoal looking thing
second one i let the oil cool down a little but it was no better
3. Cutlets 3-4
I decide to take the heat down a notch
i use the metric of when the batter is dropped into the oil, it comes back up almost immediately
the frying is much better
the meat still was a little tough
4. Cutlets 5-8
I decide to put more salt on it
not to the point of crusting it, but the salt basically covers the whole thing
i also decide to fully cover it instead of the "light" whatever the book suggests
meaning i put it in the flour until it's covered (shaking off the excess)
i make sure the egg completley covers the whole thing
and i cram as much panko onto the sides and top/bottom
the result was a lot juicier and more to what i came to expect for tonkatsu
i found that if i kept the heat at "4" and streamlined the process where one would go in right after another was finished, the oil stayed the same temp throughout
5. clean up
a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch
i ended up pouring the oil into some empty spot in the backyard
it fried the dirt, haha
6. epilogue
i dunno when i'll do this again, i ate too much tonkatsu
might use a smaller pot, less oil, something
i'm gonna try to use a more fatty cut of pork next time, the pork seemed to dry out quickly for this one if not eaten quickly. too lean for my tastes
was annoyed that the breading did not "stick" to the meat, that's how it's been in my experience in america, the place i had in japan it was more of a pocket, but i like it sticking
dunno how to get the breading more thicker, i want more breading than a little bit, but i guess it was fine
i definitley need a wire thing to let the oil drip through instead of putting it on paper towels, the bottom would get all soggy if i used paper towels
i'm glad it ended up well, i was afraid the whole experience would be a gigantic fail, instead it was a fail in the beginning
here is a quick record of what happened and i suppose what i "learned"
1. prep
cut off all the fat lining the tonkatsu like the book said since it might make it curl
"lightly salt", i first put very little salt on the thing
i dumped a whole bottle of veggie oil in a pot, didn't get to their "3 inches", but it worked well enough i guess?
i heated up the oil, i've no oil thermometer so i used their metric, and dropped some batter (for me egg/flour) to see what would happen
when it got what seemed to be what the book wanted i put a cutlet in
2. Cutlets 1-2
in a word, disaster
shit bubbled and made a noise someting fierce and got black in like... 10 seconds
i pulled it out and it was a charcoal looking thing
second one i let the oil cool down a little but it was no better
3. Cutlets 3-4
I decide to take the heat down a notch
i use the metric of when the batter is dropped into the oil, it comes back up almost immediately
the frying is much better
the meat still was a little tough
4. Cutlets 5-8
I decide to put more salt on it
not to the point of crusting it, but the salt basically covers the whole thing
i also decide to fully cover it instead of the "light" whatever the book suggests
meaning i put it in the flour until it's covered (shaking off the excess)
i make sure the egg completley covers the whole thing
and i cram as much panko onto the sides and top/bottom
the result was a lot juicier and more to what i came to expect for tonkatsu
i found that if i kept the heat at "4" and streamlined the process where one would go in right after another was finished, the oil stayed the same temp throughout
5. clean up
a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch
i ended up pouring the oil into some empty spot in the backyard
it fried the dirt, haha
6. epilogue
i dunno when i'll do this again, i ate too much tonkatsu
might use a smaller pot, less oil, something
i'm gonna try to use a more fatty cut of pork next time, the pork seemed to dry out quickly for this one if not eaten quickly. too lean for my tastes
was annoyed that the breading did not "stick" to the meat, that's how it's been in my experience in america, the place i had in japan it was more of a pocket, but i like it sticking
dunno how to get the breading more thicker, i want more breading than a little bit, but i guess it was fine
i definitley need a wire thing to let the oil drip through instead of putting it on paper towels, the bottom would get all soggy if i used paper towels
i'm glad it ended up well, i was afraid the whole experience would be a gigantic fail, instead it was a fail in the beginning