Name: Steak and Guinness Pie
Ingredients: 1 12-inch pie pastry; 2 pounds round steak, diced; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 tablespoon brown sugar; 1 tablespoon raisins; 5 medium size onions, chopped; 1 bottle Guinness stout; 8 slices bacon; 3 tablespoons butter; chopped parsley

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Round steak: Provides the main meaty body, becoming tender during long, slow simmering.
Guinness stout: Adds deep, slightly bitter flavor and liquid that builds the gravy.
Onions: Add sweetness and savory depth as they brown and soften into the gravy.
Flour: Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy that holds the filling together.
Bacon: Adds smoky, salty fat that flavors the meat and browns the pan.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the stout and deepens color.

The step that matters

Simmering the gravy. Simmering slowly for 2.5 hours breaks down the connective tissue in round steak so it turns tender. Adding water when the gravy thickens too fast keeps it from scorching and becoming pasty.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, raisin, butter, parsley):

Shallotfits better
Arrowrootfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, raisin, butter, parsley. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Pie	not in our table	0
Pastry	not in our table	0

Steak and Guinness Pie