Fleischpflanzerl

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy frying pan, 28cm
• •Mixing bowl
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Small pan for softening onion

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the roll

   Tear the stale Semmel into a bowl and pour over the milk or water. Leave it 10 minutes, until the bread is soft all the way through, because dry pieces make hard spots in the patty and wet bread makes the mix slump. Squeeze it firmly in your hands, then tear it loose again so it disappears evenly through the meat.

   Use a stale roll, not fresh sandwich bread. Stale bread drinks liquid and releases it back gently; fresh bread turns pasty and gives you a heavy patty.
2. 2

   Soften the onion

   Melt the butter or lard in a small pan and cook the diced onion over medium-low heat for 5 to 6 minutes, until translucent but not browned. Raw onion stays sharp inside a quick-fried patty, while a softened onion gives sweetness and cooks through before the crust is done. Let it cool so it doesn't warm the meat.

3. 3

   Mix the meat

   Put the beef, pork, squeezed roll, cooled onion, egg, mustard, marjoram, salt, pepper, and parsley in a bowl. Mix with your hand just until the bread and seasoning are evenly spread. Stop there. Work it like sausage and the proteins tighten, which gives you a springy patty instead of a tender one.

4. 4

   Shape and test

   Wet your hands and shape 8 thick oval patties, pressing a shallow dimple in the middle of each so they don't dome in the pan. Fry a teaspoon of the mixture first and taste it. This is where you fix salt and pepper, not after the whole batch is cooked. If the mixture feels too loose to hold, work in a spoon of breadcrumbs and stop.

5. 5

   Fry them brown

   Heat the clarified butter or lard in a wide pan over medium heat. Lay in the patties with space between them and fry 5 to 6 minutes per side, turning once or twice, until deep brown outside and cooked through to 70C in the centre. Keep the heat steady. Too hot and the crust burns before the onion and pork finish; too low and the meat leaks juice instead of browning.

6. 6

   Rest and serve

   Rest the Fleischpflanzerl on a warm plate for 5 minutes, because the juices settle back into the bread and meat instead of running out at the first cut. Serve with mustard, cucumber pickles, and Kartoffelsalat, potato salad, or with rye bread for the simpler table. Schön ist, was schmeckt.

Chef Tips

• •Use mixed mince. Beef alone can be lean and firm; pork brings fat, and fat is what carries marjoram and mustard through the patty.
• •Marjoram is the Bavarian signal here. Rub it between your fingers before it goes in, because dried marjoram wakes up in fat and meat better when it's broken small.
• •Don't replace the soaked roll with a packet binder. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not from the packet either. The old bread is doing a job: tenderness, thrift, and no waste in one handful.
• •Cold leftovers are not second best. Slice them onto rye with mustard and pickles, and you've got the next day's Brotzeit, the bread-and-cold-plate meal.

Advance Preparation

• •Shape the patties up to 12 hours ahead and keep them covered in the refrigerator. Chill helps them hold their shape, but bring them out 15 minutes before frying so the centres don't lag behind the crust.
• •Cooked Fleischpflanzerl keep 3 days in the refrigerator. Rewarm gently in a covered pan with a spoon of water, or eat them cold with rye and mustard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 200g)