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Minced Collops

A minced steak dish simmered with water, catsup, and spices, served hot with garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Minced Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat a thickening until it is a deep yellow-brown.

  2. Add the minced steak and keep it separated with a fork until hot.

  3. Gradually pour in the boiling water and stew gently for 10 minutes.

  4. Optionally, add minced onion, eschalot, or garlic for flavor.

Season and finish

  1. For a richer flavor, omit herbs and season with cayenne and mace.

  2. Substitute beef gravy for boiling water.

  3. Near the end of cooking, mix mushroom catsup and port wine into the meat.

  4. Before serving, stir in catsup, chili vinegar, or lemon juice.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, garnished with forcemeat balls and fried sippets.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides the meat base, which is cooked gently until tender and hot throughout.
Port wine
Adds depth and mild sweetness while contributing acidity and aroma to the sauce.
Mushroom catsup
Adds concentrated savory umami flavor that deepens the overall taste of the meat.
Catsup
Contributes sweet-tangy tomato flavor that balances the richness of the meat.
Chili vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Keep the minced steak separated while it heats. Stirring the meat into clumps as it heats makes it cook unevenly and form dense lumps. Keeping the mince loose with a fork lets it heat evenly and keeps a fine, crumbly texture.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, mace, beef, mushroom, port wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, mace, beef, mushroom, port wine. 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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