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Rump-Steak Pie

A pie filled with diced rump steak, eschalots, pepper, salt, mushroom ketchup, and gravy or red wine, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and red wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 720 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Rump-Steak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the steak

  1. Cut the rump steak into pieces half the size of your hand.

  2. Trim off all skin and sinews.

  3. Beat the steak pieces with a chopper.

Layer the pie

  1. Chop the eschalots finely and mix with pepper and salt.

  2. Strew some of the mixture at the bottom of a deep dish.

  3. Layer the steak pieces and sprinkle more of the mixture in between layers until the dish is full.

  4. Add the mushroom ketchup and gravy or red wine.

Bake

  1. Cover with pastry and bake for 2 hours at 350°F (175°C).

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. Mushroom + red winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pepper + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Forms the bulk of the pie and, when slow-baked, becomes tender and rich in texture.
Eschalots
Add savoury aroma and a mild sweetness that deepens as they cook.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury depth and umami to the filling.
Gravy or red wine
Provides liquid that keeps the filling moist and carries flavour during baking.

The step that matters

Beat the steak pieces with a chopper. Beating breaks up muscle fibres and connective tissue, which helps the meat become more tender during the long bake. Uneven beating leaves tough patches.

“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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