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Jugged Steak

A stew of rump steak with carrots, turnip, onions, celery, herbs, cloves, lemon peel, stock, butter, port, flour, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Jugged Steak

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the steak into pieces about 3 inches square.

  2. Flour the steak pieces.

  3. Fry the floured steak pieces until brown on both sides in butter.

  4. Slice the vegetables.

Assemble and cook

  1. Lay part of the sliced vegetables in the bottom of a casserole. Place the meat on top of the vegetables. Cover with the remaining vegetables.

  2. Tie the herbs, cloves, and lemon rind in a piece of muslin. Lay the muslin bundle on top.

  3. Pour in the stock. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt. Cover with a lid.

  4. Place in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 3 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the lid. Skim off any fat. Take out the herbs.

  2. Add more seasoning if needed. Add port.

  3. Serve very 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, slow braising.
Butter
Browns the floured steak in the pan, adding color and rich flavor.
Flour
Coats the steak so it browns well and helps thicken the sauce.
Port
Adds sweetness and depth to the finished stew.
Onions
Break down during slow cooking, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the floured steak until brown on both sides. Browning creates savory flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pieces must be dry and not crowded, or they steam and stay pale.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, clove, lemon, butter):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, clove, lemon, 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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