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Hump- or Beef-steak, Stewed

A stew of beef or rump steak with onions, turnips, carrots, butter, ketchup, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Hump- or Beef-steak, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the steaks into convenient-sized pieces.

  2. Fry the steaks in butter until browned on both sides.

  3. Clean and peel the vegetables.

  4. Slice the onions and carrots. Dice the turnips.

  5. Fry the vegetables in the same fat used for the steaks.

Simmer and finish

  1. Combine the steaks and vegetables in a saucepan. Add water.

  2. Simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Skim the surface.

  4. Add salt, pepper, and ketchup.

  5. Thicken the sauce with flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of cold water.

  6. Let it boil for 1 to 2 minutes before serving.

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. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or rump steak
Provides the meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften and brown in the fat.
Butter
Browns the steak and vegetables, building rich flavour in the pan.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the stew.
Turnips
Add a mild, slightly peppery flavour and firm texture after simmering.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue in the beef break down slowly, making it tender. A hard boil toughens the meat and can make the sauce cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turnip, carrot, butter, pepper, ketchup, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, carrot, butter, pepper, ketchup, flour. 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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