15 DECEMBER 1900, Page 13

WHAT IS "A COLLOP " ?

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your correspondent, " H. L.," and you are, I beg to say, incorrect in •saying in the Spectator of December 8th that in Scotch cookery language "collops" are mince. Collops are, as Ogilvie says, small slices of meat. " Scotch collops" are stewed beef-steaks. "Mince collops" are beef-steaks chopped small, with a little fat, and slowly stewed with as

much water gradually added as the mince will absorb.—

P.S.—When David Ritchie in "The Fortunes of Nigel," wishing to pose as a man of family, claimed to be of Castle Collop," his father being an Edinburgh butcher, he did not think of mince, but steaks. A collop is quite correct.