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Rump, Roasted
Take as much as may be wanted from the chump end, tie it evenly, and cook as a sirloin. It can be boned and rolled, but will take much longer. It requires a steady fire, lots of basting, and must be from a prime animal. The longer it can hang the more tender it will be. Probable cost, 1s. per pound.
A reference note rather than a full method: Cassell's assumes you have already read the sirloin entry and know how to run a roast. What it really tells you is which end of the rump to buy and that the meat must be good, because nothing here disguises it.
- "Chump end"The rump runs from the sirloin back to the hip. "Chump" is the butcher's term for the thick end of a loin or rump, and usage varies as to exactly where the line falls, so it is worth describing what you want rather than relying on the word. A butcher today will know the joint as rump roast or, in the US, part of the round/sirloin tip area — ask for a well-marbled piece rather than a lean one.
- "Cook as a sirloin"The book gives no times or temperatures here and expects you to turn to the sirloin entry. By modern oven practice: sear at 425–450F for the first 20 minutes, then drop to 325–350F, reckoning roughly 15 minutes per pound at the lower temperature for rare, but go by a thermometer — 125F at the centre for rare, 135F for medium rare, then rest 20 minutes.
- Boned and rolledA boned and rolled joint of the same weight is denser and thicker through the middle, so it takes appreciably longer, which is exactly what the original warns. Tie it at 1-inch intervals so it holds a round shape and cooks evenly.
- "A steady fire"This is written for a roasting jack or a coal range, where the cook's whole job was preventing flare-ups and cold spots. A modern oven does this for you; the useful survival of the instruction is that you should not keep opening the door.
- Basting"Lots of basting" was necessary at an open fire, where the surface dried fast. In a closed oven it does little for moisture and costs you heat each time the door opens. Fat cap up, or a light barding of beef fat or bacon over a lean joint, does the same work unattended.
- "From a prime animal"Rump is a working muscle. A poor one will be tough at rare and dry at well done. If the piece looks lean and pale, it will roast badly and is better braised; the original's insistence on a prime animal is doing real work here.
- HangingDry-ageing was normal in a butcher's cold room, where controlled temperature and airflow let enzymes tenderise the meat. Do not attempt it in a domestic refrigerator on an uncontrolled shelf; buy meat already aged 21–28 days and ask how long it hung.
- Cost and yieldOne shilling a pound places this among the more expensive cuts of the late Victorian butcher's counter. Allow 8–10 oz per person on the bone, 6 oz boned, so a 4 lb joint serves six to eight with enough left for the cold table.
Cassell's belongs to a period when roast beef was less a recipe than a category, and the dictionary format lets it treat each cut as a variation on one master method — hence the terse instruction to "cook as a sirloin." Rump sat just below sirloin in prestige and price, which made it the practical Sunday joint for households that wanted a whole roast without paying for the ribs. The rider that the meat must come from "a prime animal" and hang as long as possible reflects a trade in which the butcher, not the cook, controlled tenderness: without refrigerated transport or reliable grading, quality varied by animal and by shop, and the housewife's defence was knowing her butcher. The word chump, for the thick end of a loin or rump, is butchery vocabulary attested from around the eighteenth century, of uncertain origin, and still current in British shops today, where chump chops come from the same region of lamb.