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Rump Steak, Piquant Sauce for

A sauce made from ale, claret, ketchup or Harvey's sauce, garlic vinegar, and butter, served hot over steak.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,115 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Rump Steak, Piquant Sauce for

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a small saucepan, combine ale, claret, ketchup or Harvey's sauce, and garlic vinegar.

  2. Add fresh butter and stir the mixture over heat until thoroughly heated.

Serve

  1. Serve the sauce hot over the 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. Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Ketchup + vinegartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Garlic + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,572 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Ketchup + buttertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,784 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

Ale
Adds liquid and a malty, slightly bitter depth to the sauce.
Claret
Adds wine acidity and fruity flavour that balances the richness of the butter.
Ketchup or harvey's sauce
Contributes tomato or fermented sweetness, acidity and savoury body to the sauce.
Fresh butter
Adds fat that gives the sauce a smooth, rounded texture and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir in the butter over heat until thoroughly heated. Butter is an emulsion of fat and water. Gentle, steady heat with stirring lets it melt into the liquid and bind smoothly, while overheating can split the sauce into greasy pools.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ketchup, vinegar, butter. 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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