"Dredging"
 

I came across some classic American recipes...naturally low carb (my favorite kind of recipe!)....all ingredients low carb - oils, vegetables, meats...that's it - but invariably there's the dreaded dredging of the meat cutlet in white flour.

These are primarily chicken, pork, fish or veal cutlets dredged in flour, then cooked in some kind of low carb sauce with a nice vegetable topping or accompaniment.

I'm wondering about leaving this ingredient out..wondering what undredged meats and sauces are like compared to dredged meats and sauces.

I can't imagine a suitable substitute since I believe the flour serves to form a crust on the meat?

Thoughts? Thanks! BF

I've quit worrying about coating meats and just cook them without any coating. It dowsn't seem to affect the finished product. Of course, it could be that I'm just not very picky.

I will use a seasoned egg wash or egg wash with parmesan crust. I have tried carbquick and carbalose and personally I will stick with parmesan cheese if I am going to worry about crusting something. Some people also use nut flour crusts but I have found that they burn too quickly for me.

Alot of folks use parmesan for dredging. My husband doesn't like parmesan so I use things like ground pork rinds (use that alot), Carbalose, Minicarb zero carb baking mix or Carbquik--if using the flours/bake mix, I heavily season to get rid of any weird taste they have.

You can use nut flours too, like almond.

Some recipes use dredging to thickens the juices the meat and veggies make so I think alittle carbquick or another low carb thickener would do. Swedish Steak comes to mind.

A light dredging is traditionally used mostly to dry the meat surfaces before it hits the fat (if damp, it doesn't brown well, and browning is an important component of the flavor of cutlets). This is different than battering or coating. Of course, you will get a little thickening for sauces out of the flour, but not all recipes need any thickening. I'm quite happy stiring a knob of butter into any sauces ;) at the last minute, off the heat, gives a nice gloss and just a hint of thickness.

For the sauteeing part, I pat the meats dry and then ensure the pan and the fat are hot enough to do the browning job, for these kinds of cutlet dishes.

I do this too and you really don't miss the dredging :yum:

Smushed up pork rinds have always worked for me and they don't seem to add flavor, as far as I can taste.