Tonkatsu (豚カツ, とんかつ, or トンカツ, pork cutlet), invented in the late 19th century, is a popular dish in Japan. It consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet one to two centimeters thick and sliced into bite-sized pieces, generally served with shredded cabbage and/or miso soup. Either a pork fillet (ヒレ, hire) or pork loin (ロース, rōsu) cut may be used; the meat is usually salted, peppered, dredged lightly in flour, dipped into beaten egg and then coated with panko (bread crumbs) before being deep fried.^[1]

It was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese.^[2] It was originally considered a type of yōshoku—Japanese versions of European cuisine invented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and was called katsuretsu (cutlet) or simply katsu.^[3]

Early katsuretsu was usually beef; the pork version, similar to today's tonkatsu, is said to have been first served in 1890 in a Western-food restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo.^[4] The term "tonkatsu" (pork katsu) was coined in the 1930s.

Variations

Tonkatsu has been Japanized over the years more than other yōshoku, and is today usually served with rice, miso soup and tsukemono in the style of washoku (traditional Japanese food) and eaten with chopsticks. Recently, some establishments have taken to serving it with the more traditionally Japanese ponzu and grated daikon instead of tonkatsu sauce.

Tonkatsu is also popular as a sandwich filling (katsu sando) or served on Japanese curry (katsu karē). It is sometimes served with egg on a big bowl of rice as katsudon—an informal one-bowl lunchtime dish.

Regardless of presentation, tonkatsu is most commonly eaten with a type of thick Japanese Worcestershire sauce that uses pureed apples as a principal ingredient and is called tonkatsu sauce (tonkatsu sōsu) (トンカツソース) or simply sōsu (sauce), and often with a bit of spicy yellow karashi (Japanese mustard) and perhaps a slice of lemon. Some people like to use soy sauce instead. In Nagoya and surrounding areas, miso katsu, tonkatsu eaten with a miso-based sauce, is a specialty.

Variations on tonkatsu may be made by sandwiching an ingredient such as cheese or shiso leaf between the meat, and then breading and frying. For the calorie conscious, konnyaku is sometimes sandwiched in the meat.

Several variations of tonkatsu use alternatives to pork:

• Chicken katsu (チキンカツ), which uses chicken instead, often appears in Hawaiian plate lunches.
• Menchi katsuis a minced meat patty, breaded and deep fried.
• Hamu katsu (ハムカツ ham katsu), a similar dish made from ham, is usually considered a budget alternative to tonkatsu.
• Gyū katsu (牛カツ beef katsu), also known as bīfu katsu, is popular in the Kansai region around Osaka and Kobe.

A similar cuisine with ingredients other than pork, beef or chicken is called furai (fry), not katsu (cutlet), such as aji-furai (fried horse mackerel) and ebi-furai (fried prawn).^[5]

Prices for a tonkatsu vary from 200 yen for a precooked tonkatsu from a supermarket to over 5,000 yen in an expensive restaurant. The finest tonkatsu is said^{[citation needed]} to be made from kurobuta (black pig) from Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan.

Tonkatsu outside Japan

• Saengseonkkaseu (생선까스 fish katsu) is a Korean fish cutlet modeled on the Japanese dish. Tonkatsu in Korea is known as donkkaseu (돈까스) or donkaseu (돈가스), a simple transliteration of the Japanese word to Korean.^[6]

See also

• Korokke
• Wiener schnitzel
• Cotoletta
• Japanese cuisine
• Chicken Tatsuta
• Tonkotsu (豚骨) – not to be confused

References

1. ^ Tsuji, Shizuo; Fisher, M.F.K. (2007). Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art. Kodansha International. p. 240. ISBN 4770030495. http://books.google.com/books?id=fby2Er0seMMC&pg=PA240&dq=Tonkatsu#v=onepage&q=Tonkatsu&f=false. 
2. ^ Rupelle, Guy de la (2005). Kayak and land journeys in Ainu Mosir : among the Ainu of Hokkaido. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. p. 116. ISBN 9780595346448. http://books.google.com/books?id=Fx5XqEK9OV8C&pg=PA116. 
3. ^ Jennifer Ellen Robertson, ed (2005). A companion to the anthropology of Japan. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 421. ISBN 0631229558. http://books.google.com/books?id=ig9wPZjygnMC&pg=PA421&dq=katsuretsu#v=onepage&q=katsuretsu&f=false. 
4. ^ Kaneko, Amy (2007). Let's Cook Japanese Food!: Everyday Recipes for Home Cooking. Chronicle Books. p. 101. ISBN 0-8118-4832-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=cozw2PdLopgC&pg=PA101#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
5. ^ "Katsu" (in Japanese). Dictionary of etymology. http://gogen-allguide.com/ka/cutlet.html. "Difference between katsu and furai is not defined explicitly; however, cuisine made of fish or vegetables are not called katsu but called furai." 
6. ^ Bae Su-gang (배수강) (November 30, 2004). "국립국어연구원, 다듬은 말 바로쓰기운동 펼쳐 (The National Institute of the Korean Language, started a campaign to use refined (loan) words." (in Korean). Eorinni Dong-a (Kids Dong-a). http://kids.donga.com/news/vv.php?c=10&d=10&page=314&id=20200411306918. "‘돈가스’도 마찬가지. 돼지를 뜻하는 일본어 ‘돈’과 고기를 다진 후 빵가루를 묻혀 기름에 튀긴 ‘커틀릿(cutlet)’의 일본식 발음인 ‘가스’가 합쳐져 잘못 사용되는 말로.. 생선가스..도 각각 ‘생선튀김’.....로 바꿔야 한다. Translation: "Dongaseu is the same as well. It is a misused term that derives from the combination of the Japanese term ton, meaning pork, and the Japanese pronunciation of 'cutlet', made by frying minced and breaded meat... Saengseonkkaseu should also be changed to saengseon twigim (fried fish).""