The Slavic east and the Balkans · Volume 28, Grill, Pepper and the Ottoman-Habsburg Line
Karađorđeva Šnicla
Belgrade, 1956
Illustration
- Time
- 40 minutes
- Researched
- 10 sources cited
Created at the "Golf" restaurant in Belgrade by chef Milovan "Mića" Stojanović, reportedly improvised for a regular customer when he lacked the ingredients for her usual Chicken Kiev order, substituting a pounded cutlet rolled around kajmak, breaded and fried, plated to resemble a military medal with tartar sauce. It received its now-standard name at a Belgrade culinary exhibition in 1967. Stojanović went on to serve as Tito's own personal chef from 1956 to 1980, a well-attested, consistent story across multiple Serbian sources, unusually solid for a dish this recent.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 40 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 veal or pork escalopes, pounded thin
- 150 g kajmak, or clotted cream if unavailable
- to cover flour, beaten egg, breadcrumbs
- for frying oil, for frying
- to serve tartar sauce, to serve
Method
- Pound each escalope thin and even.
- Place a generous spoonful of kajmak in the centre of each, roll tightly, and secure with a cocktail stick if needed.
- Dredge in flour, then beaten egg, then breadcrumbs, pressing to coat evenly.
- Deep or shallow fry in the oil at 175°C for 4 to 5 minutes, turning, until deep golden and cooked through.
- Rest briefly, remove the cocktail stick, and serve with tartar sauce.
What a modern chef changes
The filling given the respect a genuine, unavailable-in-Britain ingredient deserves, and the fry judged properly
Sourcing-driven technique
Method
- Build your own cultured clotted cream if real kajmak cannot be sourced, rather than reaching for plain sweet clotted cream; skimming very slowly scalded, unhomogenised milk repeatedly over several days and salting lightly gets closer to kajmak's cultured tang than an off-the-shelf substitute.
- Chill the filled, rolled cutlet before breading. A cold, firm roll holds together far better through the crumb and fry than one breaded straight after rolling.
- Fry to a genuine internal temperature, not a fixed time, since escalope thickness varies; pull the cutlet the moment it reaches a safe, just-cooked core rather than over-frying for insurance.