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Rump Steak with Onion Gravy

A broiled rump steak served with a savory onion gravy made from onions, broth, flour, butter, and mushroom catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Rump Steak with Onion Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the onion base

  1. Combine onions and water in a quart stewpan.

  2. Cover and cook on low heat until water evaporates and onions brown slightly.

  3. Add broth and cook until onions are tender.

  4. Strain broth and finely chop onions.

Make the gravy

  1. Thicken broth with flour and butter.

  2. Season the thickened broth with mushroom catsup, pepper, and salt.

  3. Stir in chopped onions.

  4. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Pour the gravy over the broiled rump steak.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Browning and cooking down to a sweet, savory base for the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth gravy body.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour thicken the broth smoothly.
Mushroom catsup
Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the gravy.
Broth
Forms the liquid base of the gravy, carrying the flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the onions until water evaporates and they brown slightly. Low, covered heat first softens the onions, then the remaining water evaporates so their sugars can brown. This browning builds the gravy's sweet, savory depth. Rushing this step leaves the base pale and flat.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, flour, butter, pepper. 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.

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