Escalope

Escalopes farcies

An escalope (also spelled as escallope) is a piece of boneless meat that has been thinned out using a mallet, rolling pin or beaten with the handle of a knife, or merely butterflied. The mallet breaks down the fibers in the meat, making it more tender, while the thinner meat cooks faster with less moisture loss. The meat is then coated and fried.

Common sizes

The typical sizes of an escalope used in the food industry range from 113 to 227 g (4–8 oz).

Paillard or scallop

Paillard is an older French culinary term referring to a quick-cooking, thinly sliced or pounded piece of meat. In France, it has been largely replaced by the word escalope.

The cut is known as "scallop" in the US, not to be confused with the shellfish scallop.

Origin

The term escalope originated in France. It first appeared in cookery terminology late in the 17th century as a dialectal expression in the northeast of rural France originally meaning a shelled nut or mollusk: veau à l'escalope (veal cooked in the style of an escalope). In those days, an escalope was undoubtedly always veal.

See also

• Cutlet
• Saltimbocca
• Scaloppine
• Wiener Schnitzel