Reference Recipe: Wiener Schnitzel with Potato Salad

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To give you a better idea of how climate-friendly different recipes are, I have used some reference recipes for comparison. These classic recipes are not necessarily the most climate-friendly, but serve as a benchmark for all other recipes. The following article is one of these reference recipes

No question about it: Schnitzel with potato salad is an absolute classic that is prepared in millions of kitchens. So the recipe should come as no great surprise. However, looking at the CO₂ emissions was quite exciting for me: although I knew that beef has a relatively high carbon footprint, I was surprised at how high it is in relation to the rest of the recipe. You can find an overview of the estimated carbon footprint directly after the recipe.

Recipe #

Schnitzel/cutlet with potato salad

40 minutes

2 portions

Ingredients #

Potato salad

• 400 g potatoes
• 1 small onion
• 75 ml vegetable stock
• 2.5 tbsp oil
• 20 ml vinegar, e.g. white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp mustard
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 1 pinch of sugar

Wiener Schnitzel / Cutlet

• 2 veal escalopes (approx. 150-175 g each)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 15 g flour
• 1 egg
• 30 g breadcrumbs
• 50 ml neutral oil, e.g. sunflower seed or rapeseed oil

Directions #

1. First make the potato salad. Roughly clean the potatoes and boil them in salted water for 20-30 minutes.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, chop the onion into small cubes. Bring the onion cubes to the boil in the vegetable stock.
3. Remove the stock from the heat. Add the vinegar, oil, mustard, pepper and sugar to the stock and onions. Cover the pan and simmer until the potatoes are cooked.
4. (In the meantime, you can prepare the schnitzel/cutlets.) When the potatoes are cooked, you can drain the cooking water, peel the potatoes and slice them.
5. Place the potato slices in a bowl and pour the stock over them. Use a spoon to make sure that all the potato slices are covered with the stock. You will have a little too much liquid at first, but the stock will slowly soak in. After a few minutes you can moisten the potatoes again and the rest of the stock will be absorbed. Set the potato salad aside until ready to serve; ideally it should still be lukewarm.
6. Flatten the schnitzel/cutlets slightly. (If you don’t have a meat tenderiser, you can place the schnitzel/cutlets in a plastic bag and hit the bag with a pan or saucepan to flatten the schnitzel/cutlets).
7. Salt and pepper both sides of the schnitzel/cutlets. Prepare three deep plates for the breadcrumbs: put the flour in the first plate, the beaten egg in the second and the breadcrumbs in the third.
8. Dip each schnitzel/cutlet in the flour, then in the egg with a fork and finally in the breadcrumbs on both sides.
9. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Fry the schnitzel/cutlets for 3 to 5 minutes on each side until they are golden brown. Serve with the potato salad.

Carbon Footprint #

In total, two portions of Wiener schnitzel with potato salad have an estimated carbon footprint of 4702 g.

This ranks it number 53 out of 53 recipes published on the blog so far in terms of estimated carbon footprint.

The comparison between the potatoes and the veal schnitzel is particularly interesting: the potatoes account for almost 40% of the total weight of the ingredients, but only 2% of the estimated carbon footprint (or 3% if cooking is included). The veal, on the other hand, accounts for almost 90% of the dish’s CO₂ emissions, although it only represents less than 30% of the weight of the ingredients.

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