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Broiled Rump-steak with Onion Gravy

A broiled rump steak served with a savory onion gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Broiled Rump-steak with Onion Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the onion gravy

  1. Combine sliced onions and water in a quart saucepan. Cover and cook on low heat until water evaporates and onions are slightly browned.

  2. Add broth and boil onions until tender. Strain broth and chop onions finely.

  3. Season chopped onions with mushroom ketchup, pepper, and salt. Boil gently for 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Pour onion mixture into a dish and place broiled rump steak on top.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Soften and brown to build a sweet, savory base for the gravy.
Broth
Adds liquid and savory depth, cooking the onions until tender.
Rump steak
The main protein, served on top of the onion mixture.

The step that matters

Browning the onions until water evaporates. Once the water has boiled off, the onions can brown in the pan. Browning creates deeper, sweeter flavor through the Maillard reaction and caramelization, so cook gently and watch closely to avoid scorching.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mushroom, ketchup, pepper. 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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