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Stewed Rump

A stew of rump cooked with water, beer, port wine, vinegar, ketchup, and herbs, garnished with vegetables and pickles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 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

Prepare and stew

  1. Half roast the rump.

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

  3. Simmer gently for several hours until tender.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Clear off the fat and add port wine, vinegar, and ketchup to the gravy.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes and serve in a deep dish.

  3. Garnish with carrots, turnips, truffles, morels, pickles, parsley, chives, and beetroot.

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. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tarragon + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together326 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump (in the method)
A tough cut that becomes tender and rich through long, gentle simmering.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, depth and aroma to the gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy and helps tenderise the meat.
Ketchup
Adds sweet-sour tang and savoury depth to the gravy.
Small beer
Provides liquid and a mild malty, slightly bitter background to the braise.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for several hours until tender. Rapid boiling toughens meat proteins and dries the surface, while slow, low heat gradually breaks down connective tissue into gelatin, leaving the rump moist and tender.

Swap the basil

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beer, port wine, vinegar, ketchup, tarragon, parsley, 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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