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Roast Beef Pie with Potato Crust

A roast beef pie topped with a mashed potato crust, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Roast Beef Pie with Potato Crust

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the beef filling

  1. In a stew pan, combine sliced beef, saved gravy, butter, sliced onion, pepper, salt, and enough water to create gravy.

  2. Thicken the mixture by adding flour and simmer gently to avoid burning.

  3. Ensure there is enough gravy with the beef to keep the dish moist.

Make the potato topping

  1. Boil potatoes until tender, then mash them smooth with milk and butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the stewed meat to a baking dish and layer the mashed potatoes on top.

  2. Brush the potato layer with beaten egg and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or your preferred sauce.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Cold roast beef
Forms the meaty filling that gives the pie its main body and flavour.
Gravy from the roast
Adds moisture and savoury flavour so the filling does not dry out in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it clings to the meat instead of running off.
Potatoes
Form the mashed topping that cooks into a soft, creamy layer under the browned surface.
Egg
Brushed on top, it promotes browning and a glossy finish on the potato layer.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture gently. Flour needs gentle simmering to cook out its raw taste and thicken evenly; high heat can scorch the bottom of the pan and make the gravy taste burnt.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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