Name: Beef Steak Pie
Ingredients: 3 parts coarse sea salt; 1 part black pepper; dash of ground nutmeg; tender steak; chopped parsley; water; hard boiled eggs; pie crust

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef 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

Prepare a seasoning mix of 3 parts coarse sea salt, 1 part black pepper, and a dash of ground nutmeg.
Cut the tender steak into thin slices.
Sprinkle each slice with the seasoning and chopped parsley.
Roll up each slice and secure it with a small wooden skewer or place the fold down to hold it together.

Assemble

Fill a dish with the rolled steak slices.
Add enough water to create a good gravy.
Slice the hard boiled eggs and layer them on top of the meat.
Line the inside edge of the dish with pie crust and cover the top with crust.

Bake and serve

Wash the top with egg and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).
Once it boils, cook for about 10 minutes until done.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together24,744 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tender steak: Forms the main filling and provides the meat that firms and cooks through in the gravy.
Hard boiled eggs: Adds richness and a firm, sliced texture to the layer on top of the meat.
Pie crust: Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form the golden outer case.
Chopped parsley: Adds a fresh, herbal aroma that brightens the savoury meat.