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To Warm Up Cold Rump-steaks

Reheat cold rump steaks in a pan with onion, allspice, pepper, and boiling water, then finish with butter, pickles, and horseradish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 654 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Warm Up Cold Rump-steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the steaks in a pan with the onion, allspice, and black pepper.

  2. Cover the steaks with boiling water and let them boil.

Grill

  1. Ensure the fire is very clear and sprinkle a little salt on it.

  2. Heat the gridiron at an angle to prevent fat from dripping into the fire.

  3. Cook the steaks for about 10 to 15 minutes, turning them with steak tongs.

  4. Rub butter over the cooked steaks and serve garnished with pickles and horseradish.

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. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Allspice + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,325 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steaks
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy when briefly simmered and then grilled.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish that carries flavour over the cooked surface.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that cuts through the richness of the beef.
Pickles
Add acidity that balances the fatty, savoury steak.

The step that matters

Heat the gridiron at an angle. Angling the grid keeps fat from dripping into the fire, where it flares up and can char the meat with soot and bitter smoke instead of letting it grill cleanly.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, horseradish):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, horseradish. 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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