Frikadellen (German Pan-Fried Meat Patties)
Germany's everyday meat patty: minced pork and beef bound with a soaked bread roll, seasoned with mustard, marjoram, and plenty of onion, then fried flat in a pan rather than grilled. The soaked roll is what keeps them tender, and they're eaten as often cold from the fridge with mustard as hot with potatoes.
Ingredients
- 500 gminced pork and beef
- 1 pcsbread roll, day-old
- 100 mlmilk
- 1 pcsonion
- 1 pcsegg
- 15 gmustard, medium-hot
- 5 gmarjoram, dried
- 5 gsalt
- 3 gblack pepper
- 30 gbutter
- 5 gparsley
- 2 gpaprika
Method
- Tear the day-old bread roll into pieces, put it in a bowl, and pour the milk over. Leave it for 10 minutes until completely soft, then squeeze out the excess milk with your hands and crumble it apart.
- Finely dice the onion and soften it in a little of the butter over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Let it cool — hot onion starts cooking the egg and makes the mixture greasy.
- Put the minced pork and beef in a large bowl with the squeezed bread, cooled onion, egg, mustard, marjoram, chopped parsley, paprika, salt, and pepper.
- Mix with your hands until just combined and no longer streaky. Don't knead it — overworking makes the mixture springy and bouncy instead of tender. Fry a teaspoon of it to check the seasoning before shaping.
- With wet hands, shape the mixture into 8 patties about 2 cm thick and flatten them properly. Frikadellen are flat, not round like Italian meatballs, so they cook through evenly in the pan.
- Melt the rest of the butter in a wide pan over medium heat and fry the patties for 5 to 6 minutes per side. Keep the heat moderate: too hot and the outside burns before the middle is cooked, too low and they stew in their own juices.
- Press one gently — the juices should run clear. Let them rest for a couple of minutes and serve hot with potatoes and gravy, or cold the next day in a bread roll with mustard.
FAQ
Frikadellen contain soaked bread, egg, onion, and seasonings like mustard and marjoram mixed right into the meat, and they're pan-fried flat. A hamburger patty is usually just seasoned beef, grilled, and served in a bun. The texture is quite different — softer and more seasoned throughout.
Yes, though the mix is traditional and gives the best result: pork brings fat and tenderness, beef brings flavour and structure. All beef is firmer and drier, all pork is softer and richer. Whichever you use, avoid very lean mince or the patties turn dry.
Usually not enough binder or a mixture that was too wet. The squeezed bread and egg hold everything together, so wring the bread out properly rather than leaving it dripping. Chilling the shaped patties for 20 minutes before frying also helps them hold.
You can — about 25 minutes at 200°C on a lined tray, turning once. They come out lighter but without the browned crust that pan-frying gives, and the crust is a large part of the flavour. Frying in a pan stays the better option if you have time.
Hot with potatoes, gravy, and vegetables as a main course, or at room temperature as picnic and party food. Cold in a bread roll with mustard is arguably the most common way of all — they're made deliberately in large batches to be eaten over several days.
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