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Pot Roast

A pot roast made with rump roast, onion, lard, flour, canned tomatoes, boiling water, salt, and cayenne pepper, simmered for about three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pot Roast

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, heat the lard and brown the chopped onion.

  2. Stir in the flour and mix well.

  3. Add the rump roast and brown it on both sides.

  4. Pour in the canned tomatoes and boiling water.

  5. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

  6. Cover and boil briskly for about 3 hours, watching closely to prevent burning.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump roast
Provides the main body of meat, which becomes tender through long, moist cooking.
Flour
Stirred into the browned onion and fat, it thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy.
Canned tomatoes
Supply liquid and acidity that help build the braising sauce.
Lard
Fat that carries the browning of the onion and roast, adding savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Cover and boil briskly for about 3 hours. Boiling too hard or uncovered can reduce the liquid and scorch the bottom of the pot before the meat softens. Keeping the lid on and watching the pot closely helps the collagen in the roast break down into tender meat without burning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, tomato, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, tomato, 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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