Why it works: Vinegar and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Modern Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Heat a gentle fire and prepare a thickening until it is a deep yellow brown.
Add the minced rump steak and keep it separated with a fork until hot.
Stew and season
Gradually pour in the boiling water and stew gently for 10 minutes.
Before serving, stir in catsup, chili vinegar, or lemon juice, and add minced onion, eschalot, or garlic if desired.
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.
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Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rump steak
- Provides the meaty base and protein that gives the dish its body.
- Boiling water
- Loosens the mixture and turns the thickening into a gently stewed liquid.
The step that matters
Keeping the minced steak separated while it heats. If the minced meat is left in clumps it cooks unevenly, with grey dry pieces beside raw ones. Stirring it apart with a fork lets heat reach every piece at the same rate.
“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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