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 ↓
Minced Collops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Remove all skin and gristle from the beef.
Mince the beef and beef suet very fine.
Add salt to the minced mixture.
Dust the collops with flour.
Cook
Melt butter in a stewpan over low heat.
Stir in the collops and add a little water or gravy to moisten.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Beef
- Forms the main body of the dish, giving it its meaty texture once minced and cooked.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that keeps the minced meat moist and rich during cooking.
- Flour
- Dusted on the collops, it helps thicken the juices and give the mixture body.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour to the stewpan, helping the collops brown gently.
The step that matters
Stirring in the collops with a little water or gravy. Minced meat dries out and can stick or scorch over heat. Adding just enough liquid moistens the flour-dusted meat so it cooks gently and thickens into a cohesive mixture rather than clumping or burning.
“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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