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Beef Pot Pie

A baked dish of cubed beef, diced potatoes, dumplings, and a cornstarch pudding, served with stewed apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Beef Pot Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a pot, cook the cubed beef until browned.

  2. Add diced potatoes and cover with water; simmer until tender.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch with water to create a pudding.

  4. Combine the beef, potatoes, and cornstarch mixture in a pie dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Prepare light dumplings according to package instructions.

  2. Top with dumplings and bake for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with stewed apples on the side.

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. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Beef + appletop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,364 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 savory, meaty body of the filling and browns for flavor.
Potatoes
Add starch and soft bulk that makes the filling hearty.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cooking liquid into a pudding-like filling that holds together.

The step that matters

Mix cornstarch with water to create a pudding. Cornstarch thickens only when heated in liquid and begins to gel around a boil. Stirring it smooth before adding it prevents lumps and keeps the filling from thickening unevenly.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato. 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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