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Stewed Rump of Beef

A slow‑cooked stew of rump beef with bacon, vegetables, and a roux‑based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Rump of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the bone from the rump of beef and cut it away.

  2. Insert the bacon pieces into the beef at a slant.

Make the stock

  1. Place the chopped bone in a large stewpan with cloves, onions, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf.

  2. Add the beef, cover with water, and add salt and burnt onions.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for nearly 4 hours, skimming as needed.

  4. Strain the stock through a sieve into a basin, keeping the beef warm.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In another stewpan, melt the butter, then add flour and stir until slightly browned.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool, then gradually stir in the stock and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the carrots, turnips, and button onions to the sauce and simmer until tender, skimming as needed.

  4. Add powdered sugar and adjust thickness with more stock if necessary.

  5. Serve the beef on a dish with sauce around it.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  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

Flour
Browned in butter, it thickens the stock into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the sauce.
Beef stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and sets its thickness when reduced.
Rump of beef
The main cut, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Button onions
Soften in the sauce and add mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in butter. Stirring the flour in melted butter until lightly browned cooks out its raw taste and adds color and nutty flavor. Adding the stock too soon, or letting the roux scorch, gives lumps or a bitter taste.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, 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.

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