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 in Cans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat
Remove the strings from the beef hearts.
Hash the chuck meat and hearts in a sausage machine.
Mix the hashed meat with marrow fat, minced onions, and flour to form a batter.
Fry the mixture in a jacket kettle for 30 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
For seasoning, combine white pepper, salt, and mushroom ketchup with the meat.
Can and process
In 2 cans, place 1 pound 12 ounces of meat and 5 ounces of clear jelly.
In 1 can, place 14 ounces of meat and 4 ounces of clear jelly.
Wipe the cans clean and cap them, leaving center vents open.
Place the cans in trays and put them into the retort, closing the cover tightly.
Process for 1 hour and 20 minutes at 3 lb pressure, then blow off slowly and close the vents quickly.
For the boil-off, process for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 8 lb pressure.
After processing, remove the cans and cool them under a shower.
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.
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Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,232 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef hearts
- Provides the main meat body and rich, dense texture of the filling.
- Marrow fat
- Adds fat that keeps the cooked meat moist and carries flavour.
- Flour
- Binds the hashed meat into a batter that holds together when fried.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds savoury, umami depth to the seasoned meat.
- Clear jelly
- Adds moisture and gel that fills the spaces in the canned meat.
The step that matters
Process for 1 hour and 20 minutes at 3 lb pressure, then blow off slowly and close the vents quickly.. Canned meat is low-acid, so it must reach a full pressure-cook to be safe. Venting slowly and closing vents promptly keeps steam pressure controlled and the process consistent.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, flour, mushroom, ketchup):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits better
- Celeryfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, flour, mushroom, ketchup. 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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