Skip to main content
Main

Scotch Collops

Veal collops seasoned with nutmeg, fried and served with a gravy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scotch Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut veal into thin pieces, about 3 inches round.

  2. Beat the veal with a rolling pin.

  3. Grate a little nutmeg over the veal.

  4. Dip the veal in the egg yolk.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the veal in butter until golden brown.

  2. In a separate pan, mix gravy with a little butter and flour.

  3. Add the egg yolk and cream to the sauce, stirring until thick.

  4. Serve the sauce warm over the collops.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked until tender and browned.
Egg yolk
Binds the coating and thickens the sauce, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the veal and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the sauce, softening its texture.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolk and cream to the sauce. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently, but if the sauce gets too hot while stirring it can curdle or scramble. Keep the heat low and stir constantly until it thickens.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, butter, sauce, flour, cream):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, butter, sauce, flour, cream. 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.

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes