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Veal Collops

Veal collops are veal cutlets coated in egg and cracker crumbs, fried then simmered in a flour‑based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut the veal into pieces the size of an oyster.

  2. Mix salt, pepper, and a little mace; rub over each piece.

  3. Dip the pieces in egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

Fry and make the gravy

  1. Fry in hot lard or beef drippings until golden brown.

  2. Remove the cutlets and set aside excess grease for later use.

  3. In the remaining grease, rub in 1 tablespoon of flour until smooth and brown.

  4. Gradually add 1 cup of cold water, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  5. Bring the gravy to a boil, then return the meat to the pan.

  6. Cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes to soften the meat.

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lean veal
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during the gentle simmer.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the cracker crumbs adhere to the veal pieces.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating when fried in hot fat.
Flour
Browns in the drippings and thickens the cold water into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Rubbing the flour into the grease. Flour must be worked into the fat until smooth and browned before water is added. Cooking out the raw starch develops flavour and prevents lumps in the gravy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, egg, beef, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, egg, beef, flour. 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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