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Mince Collops

A dish of thin slices of beef cooked with butter, flour, stock, pepper, and salt, served with toast and optional poached eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Margaret · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mince Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Put 1 level tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour in a pan.

  2. When melted and smooth, add 1 cup of stock and 1 lb. of raw chopped beef.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook until the meat turns grey, stirring all the time.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. Serve with points of toast around the dish and, if liked, poached eggs on top of the mince.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

563Calories
13 gProtein
13 gFat
96 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Margaret. 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. See the original page.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Thickens the melted butter and stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and carries the flour so it cooks smoothly.
Stock
Provides the liquid that cooks the meat and forms the gravy.
Beef (in the method)
Main protein; it turns grey and firms as it cooks through.

The step that matters

Keep stirring the meat. Constant stirring stops the minced beef from sticking and scorching on the base of the pan and keeps it cooking evenly until it turns grey.

“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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