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Beefsteak Piz.

A baked pie of sliced beefsteak, onions, potatoes, and spices, topped with crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beefsteak Piz.

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a deep baking dish and line it with thin pie crust.

  3. Cut the beefsteak into palm-sized pieces and beat each piece with a rolling pin.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the bottom of the dish with meat, then season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, allspice, catsup, and onion.

  2. Add a layer of sliced potatoes and dot with butter.

  3. Repeat with another layer of meat and then potatoes.

  4. Pour in a little water, cover with crust, and bake for 1 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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Forms the main meat filling, becoming tender as it cooks in the covered dish.
White potatoes
Add starch and body to the filling, soaking up juices as the pie bakes.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma that flavors the meat as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the crust and potato layers.
Pie crust (in the method)
Encloses the filling, trapping steam and moisture while the pie bakes.

The step that matters

Pouring in the water before covering. Too little liquid can leave the beef dry and tough, while the covered crust traps steam that gently cooks the meat through during the long bake.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, nutmeg, allspice, potato, butter):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, nutmeg, allspice, potato, butter. 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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