Name: Rump Steak, Savoury
Ingredients: 1 rump steak, ¾ inch thick; oil for brushing; 2 shallots, finely minced; juice of 1 lemon; fried potatoes, for serving

Why it works: Shallot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,523 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rump Steak, Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

Trim the rump steak neatly and brush it with oil.
Broil the steak as directed in the Beef Steak, Rump recipe.
Once cooked, place the steak on a serving dish.

Finish and serve

Pour the lemon juice over the steak and sprinkle the minced shallots on top.
Serve very hot with fried potatoes around the dish.

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.

Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,523 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Shallot + fried potatotop 61% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lemon + fried potatotop 82% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak: Provides the main protein, whose texture depends on cooking it only until done.
Shallots: Add a mild, sharp onion flavour that complements the beef.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the beef.