Zurich-Style Sliced Veal
Veal in a cream sauce with mushrooms. The meat goes into the pan twice and rests in between.
- Preparation
- 20 min
- Cook/bake time
- 20 min
- Total
- 40 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Calories
- 564 kcal
- Servings
- 4
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cooking & baking
- 20 min
Veal in a cream sauce with mushrooms. The meat goes into the pan twice and rests in between. If you let it simmer in the sauce, you get tough strips. Veal of this thickness is cooked through after ninety seconds and only gets tougher after that. The sauce is finished without the meat.
Why this works
Veal strips a few millimeters thick are cooked through after about ninety seconds. Every additional minute in the sauce causes the muscle fibers to contract further, squeezing out water and becoming tough. That is why the meat is seared quickly, taken out, and only returned right at the end when the sauce is finished. The juices that collect while resting go into the sauce and are an asset rather than a loss. The second point is searing in batches. An overcrowded pan lowers the temperature below the point where the Maillard reaction takes place, and the meat begins to boil in its own juices. With such mild-tasting meat, the browned bits at the bottom of the pan are the most important source of flavor for the entire sauce.
Step-by-step instructions
- 1
Prepare the meat
Cut the veal against the grain into strips about five millimeters thin and dredge them in flour just before frying. Cutting against the grain is important. If cut with the grain, the fibers remain long and the meat seems tough, no matter how briefly it cooks.
- 2
Sear in batches
Sear the meat in hot oil in two to three batches for only 60 to 90 seconds each and remove it immediately. Working in batches is mandatory. A full pan cools down and the meat boils in its juices instead of browning.
- 3
Mushrooms and shallots
Sear the mushrooms in butter until they have taken on color, add the shallots and sauté them until translucent. Salt only after this step. Mushrooms salted too early release water immediately and steam instead of frying.
- 4
Sauce without meat
Deglaze with white wine, scrape the browned bits from the bottom and let it reduce almost completely. Pour in the stock and cream and let the sauce reduce for five to eight minutes until it coats the back of a spoon. The meat stays out during this time.
- 5
Return meat and serve immediately
Return the meat **along with any accumulated juices** to the sauce, toss it once and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt, and white pepper, then sprinkle parsley over it. Serve classically with Rösti.
Our best tips
- The meat must not simmer in the sauce. Ninety seconds of searing is enough. Anything more makes it tougher, not more tender.
- Add the accumulated meat juices to the sauce. They contain dissolved flavor compounds and are exactly what the mild cream sauce needs.
- Salt mushrooms only after searing. Salt draws out water, and wet mushrooms do not brown.
Tasty variations
With kidneys
Replace a quarter of the veal with veal kidneys. This is the original Zurich version, which is still served this way in traditional establishments today.
With chicken
Chicken breast in strips instead of veal, frying time about two minutes. Significantly cheaper, and the technique remains identical.
Nutrition facts
| Calories | 564 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 37 g |
| Carbohydrates | 8 g |
| – of which sugar | 4 g |
| Fat | 39 g |
| Fiber | 2 g |
Where the 564 kcal come from
per serving
Calculated from the ingredients – how we do it
We add up reference values for every ingredient and divide by the number of servings. These assumptions are baked in:
- Reference values per 100 g – for the raw ingredient, exactly as listed.
- Tinned goods count at drained weight, bone-in meat at purchase weight: you eat about 70 per cent of a chicken thigh and leave the rest.
- Water evaporates as you cook. The energy stays in the pot, the weight does not – so the figure is per serving, not per 100 g of finished dish.
- Anything listed without a quantity – “salt and pepper” – is not counted.
A guide value, not a lab measurement: no two onions weigh the same, and fat content varies from pack to pack.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my sliced meat get tough?
It cooked in the sauce. Five-millimeter thin veal strips are cooked through after ninety seconds. Every additional minute squeezes water out of the fibers. The meat is only returned right at the very end.
How many calories does Zurich-Style Sliced Veal have?
Around 565 kcal per portion, without Rösti. The cream contributes about 170 kcal per portion. With half cream and half stock, the value drops to around 480 kcal.
Do mushrooms belong in it?
In the version common today, yes. Historically, Zurich-style sliced meat was pure veal with cream. The mushrooms were only added in the 20th century and are now standard.
Why cut against the grain?
Because this keeps the individual muscle fibers short and they offer hardly any resistance when chewing. Meat cut with the grain remains stringy, even if it is perfectly cooked.
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