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Stewed Rump

A stew of rump beef simmered with water, beer, wine, herbs, and optional mushrooms, truffles, morels, oysters, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Stewed Rump

Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Stewed Rump

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the beef

  1. Half-roast the piece of rump beef.

  2. Place it in a large pot with water, small beer, port wine, salt, vinegar, ketchup, mixed herbs, onions, cloves, and Cayenne.

  3. Cover the pot and simmer for 2-3 hours until the beef is tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Once done, lay the beef in a deep dish and keep it warm over hot water.

  2. Skim the gravy.

  3. Add pickled mushrooms, truffles, morels, and oysters if desired.

  4. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter.

  5. Heat it.

  6. Pour it over the beef.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Tarragon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together528 recipes

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

  3. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beer + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump beef
Long simmering in liquid breaks down its connective tissue, making the meat tender and moist.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the beef rather than running off.
Butter
Enriches the thickened gravy, adding richness and a smooth, glossy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy and helps balance the sweetness of the port and ketchup.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, depth and colour to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering until tender. Rump is a tough cut, and it only turns tender when the connective tissue has slowly broken down over a gentle, steady simmer. Boiling hard or stopping early leaves the meat firm and chewy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, beer, port wine, vinegar, ketchup, tarragon, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, beer, port wine, vinegar, ketchup, tarragon, thyme. 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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