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Roast Rump of Beef

A marinated and roasted rump of beef with onions, thyme, parsley, and Chablis wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Roast Rump of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the beef across the grain.

  2. Place the larded beef in a dish with wine, oil, pepper, salt, onions, thyme, and parsley.

  3. Marinate for 2 days, turning once or twice.

Roast

  1. On the third day, roast the beef.

  2. When half roasted, add a tablespoon of the marinade to the gravy in the dripping pan.

  3. Baste frequently.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump of beef
Forms the main cut; larding with fat keeps the lean meat moister during roasting.
Onions
Release moisture and sweetness into the marinade, adding flavour to the meat and gravy.
Chablis (white wine)
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderise the surface of the meat and adds aroma.
Oil
Carries fat-soluble flavour into the meat and helps the surface brown during roasting.

The step that matters

Adding marinade to the gravy when half roasted. Marinade added too early can burn or over-sweeten the drippings, while adding it at mid-roast lets it reduce gently into the gravy. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist so it browns evenly instead of drying out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, thyme, parsley, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, thyme, parsley, pepper. 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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