The secret you need to know about the classic Wiener schnitzel

The dish: Wiener schnitzel, Austria

Plate up There’s something important you need to know about the classic Wiener schnitzel: it’s fried in butter. Mostly when we think of breaded, fried products – calamari, fish, pork, chicken, even jalapeno poppers – we think of deep-frying in oil. But if you’re making a proper Wiener schnitzel, it has to be fried in butter.

Your arteries may have just recoiled in horror at the thought of that, but come on, this is not a diet day. It’s a day to indulge, and there are few better ways to do it than with a veal cutlet that’s pounded flat, barely half a centimetre thin, and then rolled in flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs, and dropped into a pan of bubbling, clarified butter.

Once the bread coating is golden and crisp, the schnitzel is drained, plated and served – sometimes merely with a wedge of lemon and potato salad, or with a rich, creamy sauce, just to bump up the fat content.

First serve There’s beef – so to speak – over the true origin of the Wiener schnitzel. Many point to a popular story of a Viennese field marshal, Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, bringing home the Italian recipe for cotoletta alla Milanese, a similar dish of breaded veal, in 1857. That story, however, has since been proven false – the person Radetzky is supposed to have shared the recipe with, Count Attems, didn’t even exist – and there’s no recognised origin of the Austrian dish. All that’s known for sure is that the first recorded mention of a Wiener schnitzel (schnitzel being the diminutive of “sniz”, meaning slice) is in the 19th century.

Order there There are many, many places to get a good schnitzel in Vienna. Our favourite, however, is Restaurant Salzamt (salzamt-wien.at), which has been around since 1983, and opens until 2am.

Order here In Sydney, you can’t go past Una’s in Darlinghurst for Austrian classics (unasrestaurant.com.au). In Melbourne, try Gasthaus on Queen for a hearty feed (gasthausonqueen.com). And in Brisbane, call in to K&K in Sinnamon Park (kandk.com.au).

Cook it You’ll find a wide variety of schnitzel recipes in this Good Food collection.

One more thing Italy’s cotoletta alla Milanese has spawned many imitators: try French cordon bleu, American chicken-fried steak, Japanese tonkatsu, and of course, our own humble chicken Parmigiana.