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Minced Collops

A minced beef dish cooked with onions, butter, gravy, vinegar, and mushroom catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Minced Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Mince the beef very finely with the onions, which should be cut small and parboiled.

  2. Season the mixture with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Brown and stew

  1. Brown the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the minced meat.

  3. Beat the mixture until it turns light brown.

  4. Dust in a little flour.

  5. Add the gravy or water and vinegar.

  6. Cover and let it stew gently for 30 minutes.

  7. Before serving, stir in the mushroom catsup.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender when stewed gently.
Onions
Add savour and sweetness as they soften into the mince.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the meat brown in the saucepan.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce around the meat.
Mushroom catsup
Adds deep savoury flavour when stirred in just before serving.

The step that matters

Beating the mixture until it turns light brown. Browning the minced meat builds flavour through the Maillard reaction. Stop when it is evenly light brown, since over-browning can make the meat bitter and dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, butter, vinegar, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, butter, vinegar, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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