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Bump Steak

A 1½-inch thick rump steak seasoned with coarse sea salt and black pepper, broiled over a clear fire, served with butter or oyster sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bump Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut a 1½-inch thick steak from a well-hung rump of beef.

  2. Beat the steak well and place it between a wire gridiron.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil over a clear fire for 5 minutes.

  2. Turn the steak and broil the other side.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Place on a very hot dish with a small pat of butter.

  5. Serve immediately without gravy, or with a pint of Oyster Sauce if preferred.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef rump steak
Provides the main meat, whose thickness and beating set how evenly it cooks over the fire.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy coating as it melts over the hot steak.

The step that matters

Broil over a clear fire for 5 minutes. The fire must be clear and hot so the surface browns quickly while the inside stays juicy. Too little heat leaves the steak grey and steamed, and too long over high heat dries it out.

“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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