Why it works: Flour and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 889 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pot Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the gravy
Cover the beef bones with water and simmer for 2-3 hours to make gravy.
Add enough water to make 1 quart.
Make the stew
Combine the water, salt, pepper, ketchup, and beef in a 4-quart saucepan.
When boiling, add flour mixed with a little cold water.
Prepare the crust and serve
Prepare the soda-biscuit dough.
Let the dough rise until ready.
When the stew is boiling, add the crust on top, either whole or in pieces.
Cover the saucepan tightly and boil for 20 minutes.
Place the whole crust upside down on a platter.
Add the meat to the crust.
Pour gravy over the meat.
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.
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Flour + biscuittop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together889 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together841 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Biscuit + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together319 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,032 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Roast beef
- Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as it heats.
- Lard, butter, or drippings
- Adds fat that tenderizes the biscuit dough and helps it brown.
The step that matters
Adding flour to the boiling liquid. Flour mixed with cold water stirred into hot liquid disperses evenly and thickens the gravy. Adding it dry or to a liquid that is not boiling can cause lumps.
“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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