Collops
June 28th 2025
According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), collops are, “thickish slice[s] of meat”. You can also find “minced collops, slices of meat minced before cooking.”
The term has a long pedigree in Scots, with DSL’s first citation coming from The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie (a1508): “Thow beggit … Collapis, cruddis, mele, grotis, grisis, and geis [You begged for … collops, curds, meal, groats, pigs, and geese].”
Another early citation comes from David Fergusson’s Scottish Proverbs (a1598): “It is a sairie collope that is tain off a capone”. This proverb must have proved popular, as Andrew Henderson also records a version more than two hundred years later in 1832: “It’s a sary collop that’s taen aff a chicken”. Of course, today’s chickens are much heftier than the ones Fergusson or Henderson would have encountered.
In March 1830, the Aberdeen Press and Journal concluded its report on a successful boar hunt with a reference to the ‘ancient method of roasting [boar] whole, and the more modern method of cooking in a collop, with wine sauce, as practiced at Naples and elsewhere”.
In November 1956, the Montrose Review noted: “Now that venison is plentiful and cheap in Montrose and in the best condition at this time of the year, here is a recipe for Venison Collops, which is as economical as it is appetising”.
More recently in April 2016, the Herald listed “traditional Scottish fare like cabbie claw, collops, rumbledethumps, and cullen skink”, demonstrating how the dish persists into the twenty-first century. Long may it continue!
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
