Why it works: Vinegar and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Collops
Ingredients
Directions
Heat a gentle fire and prepare a thickening until it is a deep yellow brown.
Add the minced rump steak and keep it separated with a fork until hot.
Gradually pour in the boiling water and stew the collops gently for 10 minutes.
Before serving, stir in a little catsup, chili vinegar, or lemon juice, and add minced onion, eschalot, or garlic if desired.
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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Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rump steak
- Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meaty flavour as it cooks through.
- Boiling water
- Loosens the browned thickening and gently cooks the minced meat into a moist, sauce-like stew.
- Catsup
- Adds sweetness, tang and depth of flavour to the finished sauce.
- Chili vinegar or lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the meat.
The step that matters
Keep the minced steak separated with a fork. Stirring the meat in loose pieces as it heats keeps it from clumping into a dense mass, so it cooks evenly and stays tender rather than turning tough and 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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