Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Rump

A slow‑cooked beef rump simmered with beer, wine, vinegar, ketchup, herbs, onions, cloves, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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

  1. Half-roast the rump.

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

  3. Add vinegar, ketchup, sweet herbs, onions, cloves, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Cover and simmer gently until tender.

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)
Long, gentle simmering in liquid breaks down connective tissue so the meat becomes tender.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps soften the meat during cooking.
Port wine
Adds depth, richness and a hint of sweetness to the cooking liquid.
Ketchup
Adds tangy sweetness and colour to the cooking liquid.
Onions
Provide savoury aroma and body to the cooking liquid.
Small beer
Contributes malty flavour and bulk to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until tender. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the rump slowly convert to gelatin, giving tender meat. A hard boil toughens muscle fibres and can dry the meat out, so keep the liquid just barely bubbling.

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.

More stewed rump recipes

Steaks 15of Beef 11 See all 9 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes