Pozharsky Cutlets

Put the diced butter in the freezer while you get everything else ready.

Put the torn bread in a bowl, pour the cream over it and leave it for 10 minutes, until it has drunk the lot and collapses under a fork.

Do not squeeze this bread out. Unlike a plain mince patty, the cream is meant to stay in; it is what makes the interior soft rather than merely moist.

Mince the chicken twice through a coarse plate, or chop it finely by hand with two knives. A food processor will do it if you pulse in short bursts, but run continuously it turns the meat to a rubbery paste.

Fold the soaked bread, the grated onion, the fine salt, the ground peppercorns and the nutmeg through the chicken until evenly distributed.

Take the butter from the freezer and fold it in last, working quickly with a spatula and keeping the dice in visible pieces.

Stop as soon as the butter is distributed. Worked warm or worked too long, it smears through the mince as a film and simply runs out into the pan instead of melting inside the cutlet.

Chill the mixture for 30 minutes. It is deliberately soft and cannot be shaped until it firms.

Divide the mixture into eight and shape each piece into a thick oval with wet hands, about 2.5cm deep.

Put the flour, the beaten egg and the bread cubes in three separate shallow dishes.

Roll each cutlet in flour, then in egg, letting the excess drip off, then press it into the bread cubes on all sides.

Press the cubes on firmly. Loose ones fall off in the pan and burn in the fat, and they taste of it afterwards.

Heat the oven to 180C/350F.

Melt the clarified butter in a wide frying pan over medium heat, no hotter.

Fry the cutlets for 4-5 minutes a side, until the bread cubes are deep gold and crisp.

Keep the heat moderate. High heat blackens the cubes in three minutes while the middle is still raw, and there is no rescuing a burnt crust.

Transfer the cutlets to a tray and finish in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

Check with a thermometer pushed into the centre of a cutlet: it should read 74C/165F.

Rest them for 3 minutes on a rack rather than on paper, so the underside stays crisp.

Serve with mashed potato, and expect a little melted butter to run out at the first cut.