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Beefsteak Pie

A savory pie with sliced beef, ham, onions, potatoes, and eggs in a buttery sauce, topped with pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beefsteak Pie

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 filling

  1. Cut the beef and ham into small slices.

  2. In a frying pan, melt the butter and add the chopped onion, then sauté until softened.

  3. Add the beef and ham and simmer for a few minutes.

  4. Stir in the flour and enough stock to create a sauce.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, parsley, and Worcestershire sauce.

  6. Add the sliced potatoes and cook for about 20 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pie dish.

  2. Layer the hard-boiled egg slices on top.

  3. Cover with the pie crust.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  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

Beef
Provides the main meat flavour and bulk of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and carries the flavour of the onion.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a sauce that holds the filling together.
Beef stock
Supplies liquid that becomes the savoury sauce around the filling.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, absorbing sauce as the filling cooks.
Eggs
Add richness and a firm, sliced layer that sits on top of the filling.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and stock. Flour must be cooked into the butter and stirred in gradually with stock so it dissolves without lumps; cooking it briefly removes raw flour taste and lets the sauce thicken evenly before baking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, sauce. 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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