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Collops, Scotch

Veal collops simmered in a sauce of stock, lemon, mushroom ketchup, claret, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Collops, Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Sprinkle the veal pieces with salt, white pepper, and pounded mace.

  2. Fry them in hot butter or lard until lightly browned.

Make the gravy

  1. Place the browned veal in a stewpan and dredge with flour.

  2. Add enough stock to cover the veal and bring to a boil.

  3. Skim the surface and simmer gently for 45 minutes.

  4. Remove the meat and place it on a hot dish.

  5. Add lemon juice, mushroom ketchup, claret, and cayenne to the gravy.

  6. Boil the sauce once more, pour it over the meat, and serve.

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

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

  2. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, 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

Veal
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through gentle simmering in the stock.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a gravy as it cooks around the veal.
Butter or lard
Browns the veal surface, adding color and savory flavor before simmering.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavor that brightens the rich gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor of the gravy.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after skimming. A gentle simmer keeps the veal tender and the floured gravy smooth; a hard boil toughens the meat and can make the sauce lumpy or cloudy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mace, butter, flour, lemon, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mace, butter, flour, lemon, 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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