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Collops, Scotch
Cold meat as well as fresh meat may be used for collops. Cut some pieces from the fillet of veal about two inches wide and half an inch thick, and sprinkle over them some salt, white pepper, and pounded mace. Fry them in some hot butter or lard till they are lightly browned, then lay them in a stewpan, dredge some flour thickly over them, and add as much good stock as will cover the veal. Put it on the fire, bring it to a boil, skim carefully, and simmer it gently for three-quarters of an hour. Take out the meat, lay it on a hot dish, add to the gravy the juice of a lemon, a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, a glass of claret, and two or three grains of cayenne; boil the sauce once more, pour it over the meat, and serve. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of the cold meat. Sufficient, two pounds for five persons.
A Victorian veal fricassee dressed up at the end with lemon, claret and ketchup. The one thing to reconsider is the three-quarters of an hour of simmering.
- CollopA collop is simply a thin slice of meat. Nothing is minced or chopped here despite the name's later associations with hash.
- The simmering timeForty-five minutes suits a cut with connective tissue to soften, but veal fillet at half an inch thick is cooked through in a few minutes and turns dry and stringy long before the time is up. Either use slices from the shoulder and give them the full time, or keep the fillet and simmer 10-12 minutes, then lift the meat out while you finish the sauce.
- Cold meatIf you are using yesterday's roast, skip the frying, add the slices only for the last five minutes of simmering, and build the flavour of the gravy with the stock rather than the meat.
- Pounded maceBlade mace, ground. Roughly a quarter teaspoon for two pounds of meat. Ground nutmeg substitutes at about two-thirds the quantity but is sweeter and more assertive.
- Mushroom ketchupA thin, dark, salty mushroom extract, nothing like tomato ketchup. It is still sold; a tablespoon of dark soy plus a little Worcestershire sauce gives a comparable savoury depth if you cannot find it.
- A glass of claretIn cookery books of this period a wine glass is about 2 fl oz, though "a glass" is loose. Claret means dry red Bordeaux; any dry red works. Add it with enough time to boil off the raw alcohol.
- Grains of cayenne"Two or three grains" is a pinch — the amount that clings to a knife tip. It is there for warmth at the back of the palate, not heat you can identify.
- Dredging the flourFlour dredged over meat straight from the fryingpan will catch and taste raw if the pan cools. Let it cook a moment in the residual butter before the stock goes in, and add the stock gradually or it will lump.
- Yield and costTwo pounds of veal serves five as written. The sixpence is given as the probable cost exclusive of the cold meat.
Scotch collops appear in British cookery books from the late seventeenth century onward, and the Scottish attribution was already vague by the time Cassell's compilers reached for it. The dish is often said to be characterised by its finish: lemon juice, mushroom ketchup, red wine and cayenne stirred into the cooking liquor at the last moment, a combination that shows how thoroughly the Victorian storecupboard depended on bottled savoury essences to give body to a plain stock. The note that cold meat will serve as well as fresh is characteristic of the entry, which appears as "Collops, Scotch" in what is an alphabetical dictionary of cookery: collops were taught partly as a technique for making a second dinner out of the remains of a first.