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Rump Steak, Broiled, with Onion Gravy

A broiled rump steak served with a savory onion gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,626 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rump Steak, Broiled, with Onion Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the onion gravy

  1. In a saucepan, combine sliced onions with stock or water and stew gently until the liquid evaporates and the onions are slightly colored.

  2. Add stock, pepper, and salt, then simmer until the onions are tender.

  3. Remove the onions, mince them finely, and return to the gravy.

  4. Stir in mushroom ketchup and boil the gravy for five minutes.

Serve

  1. Pour the gravy onto a hot dish and place the broiled steak on top.

  2. Serve hot.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Onion + ketchuptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Spanish onions
Soften and sweeten as they stew, forming the body of the gravy.
Rump steak
Provides the main meat, cooked by broiling for a browned surface.
Stock
Adds liquid and savory flavor to the onions and gravy.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stewing the onions until slightly colored. Letting the liquid evaporate and lightly browning the onions concentrates their sugars and builds a deeper flavor. Stopping too early leaves the gravy thin and pale in taste.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mushroom, ketchup. 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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