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Roast Beef Pie with Potato Crust

A pie of sliced roast beef simmered in gravy, topped with a mashed potato crust and baked until golden.

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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the cold roast beef into slices and place in a stewpan.

  2. Add the saved gravy, butter, sliced onion, pepper, salt, and enough water to make gravy.

  3. Dredge in flour to thicken and simmer gently on the stove.

Make the potato topping

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them smooth.

  2. Beat in milk and butter until creamy, then spread over the stewed meat in the baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the potato layer with beaten egg.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the top is golden brown.

  3. 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
Provides the main meat filling, which is already cooked and gently reheated in the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it clings to the meat instead of running off in the dish.
Potatoes
Form the mashed topping that covers the filling and browns in the oven.
Egg
Brushed on the potato layer to promote browning and a glossy golden top.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed potatoes, making them creamy and spreadable.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor in both the gravy and the mashed potato topping.

The step that matters

Dredge in flour and simmer gently. Flour must be stirred in so it dissolves evenly, then the mixture simmers gently; starch needs heat to thicken, and boiling hard can scorch the bottom or leave lumps.

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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