Skip to main content
Main

Roast Rump of Beef

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Marinate

  1. Place the rump of beef in a dish with white wine, oil, pepper, salt, shredded onions, thyme, and parsley.

  2. Marinate for two days, turning the beef three or four times.

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 the meat 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 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
Is the main cut that becomes tender and flavorful during the long marinade and roast.
White wine
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderize the meat and adds bright flavor.
Oil
Carries fat-soluble flavors through the marinade and helps the surface brown.
Shredded onions
Release moisture and savory flavor into the marinade and the gravy.

The step that matters

Basting and adding marinade to the gravy. Basting keeps the surface moist and encourages even browning, while adding marinade to the drippings builds flavor. Adding it too early can scorch sugars or dilute the gravy, so timing matters.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes