Foods of England - Minced Collops

Minced Collops

Meat and Meat Dishes
Historic

Minced beef with onion and seasonings. The word ‘collop’, in use from at least the 14th to the late 19th Centuries refers to a cut piece of meat, ready for cooking as the modern ‘steak’ or ‘rasher’. The use, in these two receipts, to indicate a very finely cut, or minced, meat, is unusual and seems to occur only in Northern England and the Borders.

Minced Collops
Image: Unknown

Original Receipt in ‘English Housewifry‘ by Elizabeth Moxon, 1764 (Moxon 1764)

454. To make MINC’D COLLOPS.
Take two or three pounds of any tender parts of beef, (according as you would have the dish in bigness) cut it small as you would do minc’d veal; take an onion, shred it small, and fry it a light brown, in butter seasoned with nutmeg, pepper and salt, and put it into your pan with your onion, and fry it a little whilst it be a light brown; then put to it a jill of good gravy, and a spoonful of walnut pickle, or a little catchup; put in a few shred capers or mushrooms, thicken it up with a little flour and butter; if you please you may put in a little juice of lemon; when you dish it up, garnish your dish with pickle; and a few forc’d-meat-balls.
It is proper for either side-dish or top-dish.

Original Receipt from ‘Lancashire Evening Post‘ – Wednesday 23 October 1935

MINCED COLLOPS

Required; 1 lb minced fresh beef, one very small onion, salt and pepper, some white stock, a dessertspoonful of oatmeal.

Bring a little good dripping to boiling point, and put in the onion, finely minced. Cook for a minute or two, but do not let it get too brown. Put in the meat and beat until all the lumps Into which it may form are smooth; then add the stock, and the salt and pepper, cover and simmer very gently for about an hour, stirring it now and then. Then put in the oatmeal (to thicken it) and cook until you judge that this is done. Many people use water instead of stock, because the meat makes its own stock as it cooks. In Scotland this is always served with a border of boiled rice, and oatmeal Is not Inevitable. You can omit it if you like. The rice, when ready, should be rather grainy and dry.

MORE FROM Foods of England...
Cookbooks ● Diary ● Index ● Magic Menu ● Random ● Really English? ● Timeline ● Donate ● Royalty ● English Service ● Food Map of England ● Lost Foods ● Accompaniments ● Biscuits ● Breads ● Cakes and Scones ● Cheeses ● Classic Meals ● Curry Dishes ● Dairy ● Drinks ● Egg Dishes ● Fish ● Fruit ● Fruits & Vegetables ● Game & Offal ● Meat & Meat Dishes ● Pastries and Pies ● Pot Meals ● Poultry ● Preserves & Jams ● Puddings & Sweets ● Sauces and Spicery ● Sausages ● Scones ● Soups ● Sweets and Toffee ● About ... ● Bookshop ●

Email: [email protected]