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Rump-steak Pie

A baked pie made with rump steak, shallots, pepper and salt, mushroom ketchup, and gravy or red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rump-steak Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the steak

  1. Cut the rump steak into pieces half the size of your hand and trim off all skin and sinews.

  2. Beat the pieces with a chopper until tender.

Layer and bake

  1. Chop the eschalots very fine and mix with the pepper and salt.

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

  3. Layer the steak on top, followed by more of the mixture, repeating until the dish is full.

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

  5. Cover the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for two hours.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Forms the main body of the pie and becomes tender during the long, covered baking.
Eschalots
Add savoury, aromatic flavour that spreads through the meat as it cooks.
Mushroom catchup
Adds concentrated savoury depth and umami to the meat and sauce.
Gravy or red wine
Provides liquid that keeps the meat moist and builds the sauce during baking.

The step that matters

Cover the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for two hours. Covering traps steam so the meat braises in its own juices; baking uncovered would dry the steak before it softens. Rump is a lean cut, so the long, moist cooking is what turns its connective tissue tender.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mushroom, red wine):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mushroom, red wine. 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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