Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Savoury Minced Collops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the thickening
Make a brown thickening by melting the butter in a pan and stirring in the flour until it begins to color.
Add the parsley, salt, and pepper, stirring over gentle heat until the mixture is a deep yellow-brown.
Cook the collops
Add the minced steak, separating it with a fork until heated through.
Gradually pour in the boiling water and stew gently for 10 minutes.
Season and serve
Before serving, stir in a small amount of catsup, chili vinegar, or lemon juice, and optionally add minced onion, shallot, or garlic.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 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
- Butter
- Melts with the flour to form the roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
- Flour
- Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the liquid as it cooks.
- Rump steak
- Provides the meat that gives the dish its main body and savory flavor.
- Boiling water
- Forms the liquid that the roux thickens and that gently stews the meat.
The step that matters
Cooking the brown thickening. Stirring the butter and flour until they reach a deep yellow-brown toasts the flour, building color and nutty flavor. Stopping too early leaves a pale, raw-tasting base, while overcooking can scorch it and turn it bitter.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, parsley, pepper, vinegar):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, parsley, pepper, vinegar. 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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