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In student canteen one of dishes I'd frequently order were soy steaks in corn flakes. I remember them well to this day, because the soy comprised maybe half the volume - the small pieces of soy were crumbed in a thick layer of corn flakes, holding firmly, and forming some kind of fluffy, crunchy crust.

I tried to repeat this a few times, following various recipes about different foodstuffs crumbed in corn flakes. I never got this effect.

Firstly, most of recipes call for corn flakes smashed/ground into small pieces. These had predominantly regular sized corn flakes. Then, full-sized corn flakes simply don't hold - I cover the piece of soy in egg, then crumb it in corn flakes, and most of the corn flakes fall off, either at once, or upon placing in hot oil. For the life of me, I can't get more of it stuck.

I believe I'm missing some ingredients, and the technique might be different than what I'm trying, but I don't know what should it be. So, how do I achieve a thick layer of corn flakes breading?

This is pretty much the look I'm striving for. enter image description here

Joe
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SF.
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  • Do any of these [pictures](https://www.google.com/search?q=cornflake+chicken&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3MeRU5nNHJGhogT8ioHoDA&ved=0CGgQsAQ&biw=1536&bih=731) get close? I mean these are chicken obviously, but can you pick any that kind of look like what you are going for? – Jolenealaska Jun 06 '14 at 13:57
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    With meat you would normally use flour, then egg, then crumbs. The flour sticks to the meat, the egg sticks to the flour, and the crumbs stick to the egg. Have you tried flour? – ElendilTheTall Jun 06 '14 at 13:59
  • @ElendilTheTall: No, but I never had problems with the egg sticking to the faux meat (it's very porous, spongy). It's the cereal not sticking to egg. – SF. Jun 06 '14 at 16:33
  • @Jolenealaska: [these](http://coffeeandattitude.com/crispy-cornflake-chicken/) seem pretty much spot on. – SF. Jun 06 '14 at 16:39
  • @SF. I don't know how much sugar you want or will tolerate in a meat-like course, but could it be that they used sugar to make them stick? I have frequently had sweet cornflakes in other circumstances. – rumtscho Jun 06 '14 at 16:58
  • @rumtscho: that specific recipe seems to allow honey mixed with eggs. Personally, I'm not very much into this kind of additions (soy by itself is rather sweet), but then I have no idea what they used in the student canteen... (though personally, I doubt they used honey. It seemed more like that was some kind of batter instead of plain egg.) – SF. Jun 06 '14 at 18:33
  • In addition to what's already been mentioned, try tossing the cornflakes in some melted butter (or similar) a few minutes before using the cornflakes as breading. That will make them a bit less brittle, a bit more formfitting. – Jolenealaska Jun 06 '14 at 20:01
  • I don't know what student canteen is, but can you ask the chef? Write an email or something? – Preston Jun 06 '14 at 20:38
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    @PrestonFitzgerald: unlikely. Over some 15 years since then I don't really believe their staff and menu didn't change... – SF. Jun 06 '14 at 23:59
  • One more question. Are you sure that they were fried? Cornflakes are usually used in oven-fried recipes. – Jolenealaska Jun 07 '14 at 00:32
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    @Jolenealaska:No, I am not. It is entirely possible they were baked. – SF. Jun 07 '14 at 00:37

1 Answers1

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The comments have already touched on a number of potential solutions. The core problem seems to be that you need a thicker, more viscous batter than can hold onto the cornflakes better than raw egg. Egg is slippery stuff, and will tend to form only a very thin layer on whatever's being dipped into it, but you want something much denser here.

In the recipe you included, honey makes the egg more viscous while seasoning at the same time. You could do the same thing by adding a small amount of flour or (appropriately) cornstarch to the egg before dipping the soy. You could even try going completely eggless and make a beer batter or tempura-style batter; depending on your recipe, you may need to back off on the liquid so that it remains relatively thick. Dip your soy into the batter, then into the cornflakes, and then fry or bake as you see fit.

You can probably play it quite loose with the cooking time. Since soy isn't an animal product that needs to be cooked to a certain temperature for safety purposes, just cook until you're happy with the final product.

logophobe
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