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
Cut veal into thin bits about three inches long and round.
Beat the veal with a rolling pin and sprinkle with nutmeg.
Fry the collops
Dip the veal in the egg yolk and fry in butter until golden brown.
Pour off the butter and prepare the sauce.
Make the sauce and serve
Mix gravy, butter‑flour mixture, egg yolk, cream, and salt in a pan.
Stir the sauce until thick, but do not boil.
Serve the sauce warm over the collops.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Veal
- Provides the tender meat that is cooked into the collops.
- Egg yolk
- Dipped onto the veal for coating and enriches the sauce, thickening it as it warms.
- Butter
- Fries the veal to golden brown and adds richness to the dish.
- Gravy
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce.
- Flour
- Rubbed into butter to help thicken the sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and smoothness to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Stir the sauce until thick, but do not boil. Egg yolk thickens when gently heated but can curdle or scramble if it boils, leaving the sauce grainy.
“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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