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Beefsteak Pie

A pie made with thinly sliced steak, seasoned with salt, pepper, herbs, and water, topped with a ½‑inch thick pasta crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and pasta are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,091 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steak into about twenty thin pieces, including fat.

  2. Season the steak with salt, pepper, and chopped herbs.

  3. Arrange the seasoned steak symmetrically in a pie dish, forming a high center.

  4. Add the water mixed with coloring.

Cover and bake

  1. Cover the pie with the prepared paste, ensuring it is ½ inch thick.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.

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. Pepper + pastatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the main filling and provides the meat flavor and texture of the pie.
Pasta
Forms the covering that seals the pie and holds in the filling as it bakes.
Water
Adds moisture to the filling so the meat stays tender during slow baking.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour. Slow, moderate heat lets the steak's connective tissue soften gradually while the meat stays juicy. Baking too hot can toughen the meat and dry the filling before it becomes tender.

“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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