Name: Collops, Savoury, Minced
Ingredients: 2 ounces fresh butter; 1 tablespoon flour; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon savoury herbs; ½ pint boiling stock or water; 1 pound steak, finely minced; juice of 1 small lemon or 1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Collops, Savoury, Minced

Ingredients

2 ounces fresh butter
1 tablespoon flour
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon savoury herbs
½ pint boiling stock or water
1 pound steak, finely minced
juice of 1 small lemon or 1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup

Directions

Make the sauce

Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Mix the flour smoothly with the butter and stir until lightly browned.
Add pepper, salt, parsley, savoury herbs, and boiling stock or water.
Stir until smooth and thick, then add the minced steak.

Cook the collops

Use a fork to prevent lumps and heat until hot.
Cover the pan and let the collops simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Before serving, stir in the lemon juice or mushroom ketchup.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Butter: Enriches the sauce with fat and adds a rich, savoury flavour.
Flour: Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce and adds light browning.
Minced steak: Provides the main meat, cooking through in the thickened sauce.
Lemon juice or mushroom ketchup: Adds acidity or savoury depth to brighten the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the butter and the stock into the flour. Flour must be mixed smoothly with the fat and then the liquid added gradually while stirring; otherwise starch clumps form and the sauce turns lumpy instead of smooth and thick.

“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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Collops, Savoury, Minced