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Beefsteak Pie

A savory pie with beefsteak strips, potatoes, onions, and a buttery crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the filling

  1. Cut the steak into strips 1.5 inches long and 1 inch wide.

  2. Place the strips in a saucepan and cover with boiling water.

  3. Add the sliced onion.

  4. Simmer until the meat is tender.

  5. Remove the meat and discard the onion.

  6. Add the potatoes to the broth and parboil for 6 minutes.

  7. Remove the potatoes.

  8. Measure the broth and add enough boiling water to make 1 pint.

  9. Add salt and pepper.

  10. Cream the butter and flour together.

  11. Add the creamed mixture to the broth.

  12. Cook for 5 minutes.

Assemble

  1. In a pudding dish, layer half of the parboiled potatoes.

  2. Add the meat.

  3. Top with the remaining potatoes.

  4. Pour enough gravy over the contents to cover them completely.

  5. Let it cool.

Make the crust and bake

  1. For the crust, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Cream the butter and lard together.

  3. Combine the creamed mixture with the dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Add enough milk to make a soft dough.

  5. Roll the dough out to ¼ inch thick.

  6. Cover the pudding dish with the dough.

  7. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is golden.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  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

Flour
Thickens the broth into a gravy and gives the crust its structure.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to both the gravy and the crust.
Lard
Makes the crust short and flaky by coating flour particles with fat.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the crust dough so it rises and bakes lighter.
Potatoes
Partly cooked layers that soak up gravy and add body to the pie.

The step that matters

Let the gravy cool before covering with the crust. Cooling the filling keeps the crust dough from becoming soft and greasy and helps it bake with better structure rather than melting into the gravy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, potato, pepper, flour, milk. 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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