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Rump Steaks

A grilled or broiled rump steak served with optional butter, catsup, onions, gravy, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom 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 Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steaks

  1. Preheat your grill or broiler.

  2. Season the rump steaks with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Broil the steaks, turning them frequently with steak tongs.

  4. Place the cooked steaks on a hot dish.

  5. Rub butter on each steak.

Make the onion gravy

  1. Slice onions.

  2. Cook the sliced onions in a pan with a little butter and 2 tablespoons of water until browned.

  3. Add half a pint of gravy or broth to the onions.

  4. Boil the mixture until the onions are tender.

  5. Strain the onions.

  6. Chop the strained onions.

  7. Return the chopped onions to the gravy.

  8. Season the gravy with pepper, salt, mushroom catsup, and port wine.

  9. Simmer the gravy for 5 minutes.

  10. Pour the onion gravy into the dish.

  11. Place the broiled steak on top of the gravy.

Finish and serve

  1. Rub more butter on the steak.

  2. Chop an anchovy and mix it with ½ cup of melted butter and pickles.

  3. Warm catsup in the dish before serving (optional).

  4. Chop eschalots finely and warm them in the dish with or without catsup (optional).

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. Butter + mushroomtop 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. Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steaks
The main cut, cooked by broiling to be browned and tender on the outside.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish when rubbed over the hot steaks.
Onions
Cooked until browned and tender, they sweeten and thicken the gravy with body.
Good gravy or broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that carries the onion flavour.
Port wine
Adds depth and a touch of sweetness to the seasoned gravy.

The step that matters

Broil the steaks, turning them frequently. Frequent turning over high heat browns the surface evenly while the inside cooks gently, helping prevent a grey, overcooked outer layer.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, mushroom, port wine, anchovy):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, mushroom, port wine, anchovy. 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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