Skip to main content
Main

Collops

Thin veal slices fried, simmered with onions, pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut the veal into thin slices.

  2. Dip the slices in flour and fry until brown.

Cook the gravy

  1. Add enough water to cover the veal and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the sliced onions, pepper, and salt.

  3. Cook until the veal is tender.

  4. Remove the veal and thicken the gravy.

Finish and serve

  1. Squeeze in the lemon juice and pour over the veal.

  2. Garnish with lemon slices.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Is the main protein, becoming tender when simmered slowly in liquid.
Flour
Coats the slices so they brown well and help thicken the gravy.
Onions
Soften during cooking and add sweetness and aroma to the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savory gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the floured veal until brown. Browning the flour-coated slices creates flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pale, under-browned slices give a flat gravy, and the flour must be cooked enough to avoid a raw taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, pepper, lemon):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, pepper, lemon. 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.

More veal collops recipes

Scotch 8 See all 47 →

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes