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Rump Steaks

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Rump Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare a clear fire for broiling.

  2. Place the steak on a hot grill and turn frequently with steak tongs.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Transfer to a hot dish and rub butter on each steak.

  5. For optional additions, warm catsup in the dish.

  6. Chop eschalots finely and warm them in the dish with or without catsup.

  7. For onion gravy, slice onions and cook with a little butter and water until browned.

  8. Add half a pint of gravy or broth to the onions, simmer until tender, then strain and chop.

  9. Return chopped onions to the gravy, season with pepper, salt, mushroom catsup, and port wine, and simmer for five minutes.

  10. Pour the gravy onto a plate and place the broiled steak on top, rubbing more butter on the steak.

  11. For an anchovy sauce, mix chopped anchovy with melted butter and pickles.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

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

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, mushroom, port wine, anchovy):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, mushroom, port wine, anchovy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More rump steak recipes

Pie 16Broiled 8Gravy 4Sauce 4Stew 3 See all 17 →

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