Name: Beefsteak Pie
Ingredients: 2 pounds beef steak; 2 teaspoons salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; chopped herbs; ½ pint water; 2 tablespoons coloring; pie crust (½ inch thick)

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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

Cut the beef steak into about twenty thin pieces, including fat.
Season the steak with salt, pepper, and chopped herbs.
Arrange the steak pieces symmetrically in a pie dish, forming a high center.

Assemble and bake

Add water mixed with coloring to the dish.
Cover with pie crust and bake 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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 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

Beef steak: Forms the main filling and provides the meat and fat that flavour the pie.
Pie crust: Covers the dish and seals in the steak while it cooks.
Water: Adds moisture that turns into steam and gravy as the filling cooks.

“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.