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Steak and Kidney Pie

A savory pie filled with diced kidney, steak, onion, and gravy, topped with flaky pastry.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Steak and Kidney Pie

Oven390°F (195°C)
Timeabout 45 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Dice kidney, steak, and onion.

  2. Almost cover with water and cook until tender.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Thicken with gravy mix or flour and water.

  5. If a very brown gravy is required, add a little soy sauce (be careful with salt).

  6. Add a good tablespoon of chopped parsley and mix.

  7. Pour the mixture into a lined pie dish.

Make and shape the pastry

  1. Preheat oven to 390°F (195°C).

  2. For the pastry: sift together flour and salt.

  3. Rub one quarter of the shortening into the flour using the tips of fingers.

  4. Add water and lemon juice and mix into a firm dough.

  5. Knead well and roll out into an oblong.

  6. Spread two thirds of the pastry with a further quarter of the shortening, sprinkle with some flour, and fold into three the unbuttered side first.

  7. Press open ends of pastry together, half-turn the pastry and roll out again.

  8. Spread with shortening as before.

  9. Repeat rolling and spreading until the shortening is all used.

  10. Fold and roll once more without fat to the size and shape required for the pie dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. To allow steam to escape, place a pie chimney in the centre and cover with pastry dough, or cut a design into pastry after covering.

  2. Glaze the top with a little milk.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until the pastry is brown, about 45 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

878Calories
42 gProtein
28 gFat
111 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Pastrynot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Kidney
Provides a rich, meaty flavour and chewy texture after slow simmering.
Topside steak
Becomes tender through simmering and adds meaty body to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy and builds structure in the pastry.
Butter or shortening
Layered into the pastry to create flakiness and a tender, short texture.

The step that matters

Rubbing and laminating the fat into the pastry. Keeping the fat in distinct layers creates steam pockets during baking, which produces flaky pastry. Overworking the dough or letting the fat melt into the flour makes it tough.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, sauce, butter, lemon. 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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