kotleta
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: kotlety
form: kotleti
form: kotletas
Etymology: From Russian котле́та (kotléta), from French côtelette (“cutlet; chop”), whence the English doublet cutlet; also a doublet of kotlet via Polish.
Senses: examples: text: Take up the kotleti and place them on a hot platter. Strain the sauce, which may be poured over the kotleti or served separately.
ref: 1947, Alexandra Kropotkin, How to Cook and Eat in Russian, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 151:
text: Beware of the juiciness of kotlety, for many a frock has been ruined by those who cut into their kotlety too vigorously and allowed the hot butter to splatter all over them!
ref: 1961, Kyra Petrovskaya, Russian Cookbook, New York, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., published 1992, →ISBN, page 97:
text: The following recipe gives very tender kotlety that may be served when entertaining guests.
ref: 1977, Savella Stechishin, “Breaded Veal Kotlety”, in Traditional Ukrainian Cookery, 9th edition, Winnipeg, Man.: Trident Press Ltd., →ISBN, page 88:
text: If they occasionally ache for plates of pirozhki and kotleta or tune out the omnipresent rock for the folk music of Vladimir Vysotsky, Gennady and Anna Shmukler are continually struck by just how American they feel. Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union, the couple once viewed American society only dimly, through a haze of cultural differences.
ref: 1988 September 1, Alan Sverdlik, “Leaving the Old World: Soviet Jews Are Comfortable With American Life”, in The Atlanta Constitution, volume 121, number 55, Atlanta, Ga., page 1D, column 1:
text: Mr. [Andrey] Sidorishin, who lives with his mother in Chamblee, gets a home-cooked meal every night, often pelmeni, a meat-filled dumpling, or a borscht brimming with vegetables and dill, the popular spice of choice. Also, he brown-bags at work, usually taking Mom’s kotletas — ground veal or chicken patties.
ref: 1991 November 7, Alan Sverdlik, “Soviet: Multicultural specialties as varied as the landscape”, in The Atlanta Journal, volume 109, number 179, Atlanta, Ga., page W6, columns 5–6:
text: Melt butter while shaping kotlety patties from the meat mixture.
ref: 1994, “Kotlety”, in Ben Collver, compiler, Russian Cooking, Grants Pass Sister City, page 29:
text: Church President Lore Stefy said the sisterhood of the church as well as all of the parishioners have prepared many traditional ethnic foods and desserts, including kotleta, pyrachki and pierogies.
ref: 2005 January 14, Lucia Drake, “Head of Russian Orthodox Church to visit tiny church in Mays Landing”, in The Press of Atlantic City, volume MMV, number 14, Atlantic City, N.J.: South Jersey Publishing Co., page C3, column 5:
text: Walk into Alla’s house on a Sunday when the family gathers each week, and you’ll likely smell golubtsi, small cabbage rolls with millet and pork; pelmeni, Siberian dumplings stuffed with various meats; or kotleta, breaded chicken better known as chicken Kiev.
ref: 2007 November 4, Timothy Alex Akimoff, “Alla [Kirilovich]’s world in balance: Wife, mother, senior class president and soccer team captain meshes American lifestyle with Slavic culture”, in Sunday Missoulian, Missoula, Mont., page E10, column 2:
text: In Soviet times when meat of good quality was extremely rare, minced kotletas were an everyday staple: soft, juicy, and golden-brown when made at home; and soggy lumpy, and greenish-grey when served in cafeterias (usually all the leftover bread went into the minced meat, most of the meat from which actually went to the canteen workers’ friends and relatives).
ref: 2009, Alexandra Grigorieva, “Russian Food Words at Home and Abroad”, in Richard Hosking, editor, Food and Language: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking 2009, Blackawton, Devon: Prospect Books, published 2010, →ISBN, page 149:
text: Join Russian-born Nina Scroggins and explore delicious dishes including borscht, varenkies and kotletas.
ref: 2009 January 27, “Morsels”, in The Gazette, volume 127, number 18, Cedar Rapids, Ia., page 2D, column 3:
text: In a small bowl, add all-purpose flour (bread crumbs) and evenly coat all kotleti with it.
ref: 2010, Nadejda Reilly, “Beef Meat Kotleti (Burgers)”, in Ukrainian Cuisine with an American Touch and Ingredients, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 233:
text: Perhaps what struck Mikoyan most was the American guy at a stainless-steel griddle who swiftly cooked a curious-looking kotleta, which he inserted into a split white bun, then flourished with pickles and dabs of red sauce. […] Our mythic all-Soviet store-bought kotleta—the lump-in-the-throat nostalgic treat from five generations of childhoods. That’s what it was? […] Kotleti for lunch, kotleti for dinner, kotleti of beef, of pork, of fish, of chicken—even kotleti of minced carrots or beets. The entire USSR pretty much lived on these cheap, delicious fried patties, and when comrades didn’t make them from scratch, they bought them at stores.
ref: 2013, Anya von Bremzen, Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →ISBN, pages 75, 78, and 307:
text: Meatballs, rissoles, patties, croquettes: Soviet cuisine had a plethora of names for dishes made from minced meat. Kotletas and bitochki used the same basic ingredients and differed only in shape (kotletas were oval and flat, bitochki rounder and plumper).
ref: 2015, Olga Syutkin, Pavel Syutkin, translated by Ast A. Moore, CCCP Cook Book: True Stories of Soviet Cuisine, London: Fuel Design & Publishing, →ISBN, page 122:
text: He mixed the meat from Emile with chopped onion, formed the kotlety, and covered them with a towel.
ref: 2016, Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 316:
text: I just happen to know an excellent cafeteria on Elmhurst Street that specializes in delicious kotlety. They serve them with mashed potatoes smothered in brown gravy.
ref: 2016, Larysa Plawan Levycky, chapter XIV, in Destiny, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN:
text: The Soviet Union impacted food production and consumption in a variety of ways—from establishing state-run cafeterias (the meat kotleti!) to forcing city-dwellers into apartments with communal kitchens (the smells!) to communal agriculture.
ref: 2017, Bonnie Frumkin Morales with Deena Prichep, “[Homestyle Dishes] Na Kartoshku (Potato Harvests)”, in Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking, New York, N.Y.: Flatiron Books, →ISBN, page 282:
text: Chill the kotleti for 30 mins to firm up.
ref: 2017, Neil Lewis, “Kotleti (Russian burgers)”, in Grand Prix Cookbook: Cook the World of Grand Prix Racing, 2018 edition, →ISBN, page 69, column 1:
text: She turned out to be a gregarious former math teacher from Ukraine, whose town had stopped paying salaries to schoolteachers years earlier, and she cooked a terrific batch of kotlety and mashed potatoes and borscht that would last until she came again three days later. Her kotlety were good, and her borscht was even better.
ref: 2018, Keith Gessen, A Terrible Country: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 207:
glosses: A meat patty or meatball made of ground pork and/or beef flattened into an oval shape, then seasoned and fried or baked.