The taste of the cutlet does not depend at all on its shape, especially since the very first cutlet in the world looked like an ordinary piece of meat on the bone. And yet, in the culinary literature, the shape of the cutlet is stipulated, it should be oval, in contrast to the round meatball.
The shape of the cutlet does not in any way affect its taste, but some housewives basically adhere to the flat-oval shape, considering it the most correct one. Meanwhile, it should be noted that in none of the recipes for "correct" cutlets do the authors focus on the form, but tell only about the necessary ingredients and careful beating of the minced meat, which gives the cutlets extraordinary tenderness and juiciness.
As evidenced by the technological chart for the preparation of cutlets
Professionals believe that the most correct should be considered cutlets, which, as a result of frying, have a golden brown crust on the outside and juicy minced meat inside. And yet, in the technology of catering dishes, there are certain requirements for the shape of the cutlets. This is an oval-flattened flatbread 1, 2–2 cm thick, with one rounded end and the other pointed. Probably, not a single housewife tries to make one end sharper in the process of molding homemade cutlets.
There will be no big trouble if the cutlets have a round shape, inherent in the technology of meatballs, which are usually smaller than cutlets in size and are prepared with the participation of various sauces. Therefore, they also differ from cutlets in the absence of a crispy crust. There is no need to philosophize about the form, especially since the word cotelette itself has a French origin from the word cotele - "ribbed" and does not at all imply roundness of forms.
What the cutlet looked like initially
And indeed, the French, who took the lead in the invention of such a dish as cutlets, called this an ordinary piece of beef on the bone. Mainly the rib or femoral part was used. Seasoned with salt, pepper and other spices, rolled in breadcrumbs, such meat was cooked on a wire rack or spit. The bone was simply "vital", because the dish was eaten without using a knife and fork, and the breading made it possible to give the cutlet the same golden, crispy crust that is characteristic of this dish, keeping the juice inside.
Cutlets were prepared not only from beef, but also from pork, lamb, and poultry. In the bird, the thigh was used for this purpose. Actually, even today in world cuisine there is a natural meat cutlet on the bone, only it is pre-beaten and deep-fried. Many nations have similar dishes. In France it is an escalope, in Germany it is schnitzel, in Japan it is tonkatsu, in Russia it is just a chop.
If you buy a pork tenderloin with a rib on the market and chop it into even, flat cutlets, then you can easily prepare a natural meat dish without adding bread crumb, milk, onions, as they used to do when making modern cutlets. When the substitution of concepts took place, today it is difficult to establish, but a cutlet made from minced and then from meat scrolled in a meat grinder appeared in Russia only at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, the shape of minced meat cutlets was established in the Russians, and then in the Soviet printed publications on cooking: the cutlet was oblong, and the cue balls were round.
