Why it works: Mushroom and red wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 720 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. 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
Cut the rump steak into pieces the size of your hand and trim off all skin and sinew.
Beat the pieces with a chopper until tender.
Assemble the pie
Mix the chopped eschalots with the pepper and salt mixture.
Strew some of the mixture at the bottom of a baking dish.
Layer the steak pieces on top, alternating with more of the seasoning mixture until the dish is full.
Add the mushroom ketchup and gravy or red wine.
Bake
Cover the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.
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.
-
Mushroom + red winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together720 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
-
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,075 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rump steak
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, slow baking.
- Eschalots
- Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and release flavour into the juices.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds savoury depth and umami to the sauce.
- Gravy or red wine
- Supplies liquid that moistens the meat and builds the sauce during baking.
The step that matters
Beating the steak until tender. Rump is a lean, fibrous cut, and beating breaks up its muscle fibres so it softens rather than staying tough. Under-beating leaves chewy pieces even after the long bake.
“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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