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Scotch , or Scorched , Collops

Thin slices of beef cooked in a gravy of butter, anchovy, morels, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 479 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Scotch , or Scorched , Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the collops

  1. Cut the collops from the thick part of the leg.

  2. Heat browned butter in a frying pan.

  3. Fry the collops over high heat, shaking and turning them until they are nicely browned.

  4. Remove the collops and place them in a pot.

  5. Add cold butter to the pan.

  6. Fry the collops again until browned.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour the cooking liquid into a stewpan.

  2. Add gravy, lemon juice, anchovy, morels, browning, ketchup, lemon-pickle, salt, and Cayenne pepper.

  3. Thicken the mixture with butter and flour.

  4. Let it boil for 5-6 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the collops back into the stewpan.

  2. Gently shake them without boiling.

  3. Remove the collops and place them in a dish.

  4. Strain the gravy.

  5. Pour it hot over the collops.

  6. Garnish with forcemeat balls, curled bacon slices, mushrooms, barberries, and lemon.

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. Anchovy + ketchuptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Beef collops
The main meat, browned for savoury flavour and becoming tender in the gravy.
Butter
Adds browning and richness to the collops and helps thicken the gravy.
Flour
Starch that thickens the gravy into a smooth, coating sauce.
Anchovy
Melts into the gravy, adding savoury depth without a fishy taste.
Lemon pickle
Adds tang and acidity that brightens the rich gravy.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to round out the gravy's flavour.

The step that matters

Gently shake the collops without boiling them. Once the collops are back in the gravy, boiling makes meat proteins contract and toughen, and can break up the pieces. Gentle movement keeps them tender and intact while they warm through.

“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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