Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Meat Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Fry the meat pieces until browned over a quick fire in a little fat or butter, seasoning with pepper and salt.
Place the browned meat into a pie dish with chopped onions, a few slices of half-cooked potatoes, and enough water to just cover the meat.
Assemble and bake
Cover the dish with a crust made from two pounds of flour and six ounces of butter (or lard or fat dripping), adding just enough water to knead it into a stiff dough or paste.
Bake the pie for about an hour and a half.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the stiff crust that covers and encloses the pie.
- Butter
- Adds fat to the crust, giving it tenderness and richness.
- Meat (in the method)
- Provides the main savoury filling, browned first for flavour.
- Potatoes (in the method)
- Add body and starch to the filling as it cooks in the water.
The step that matters
Browning the meat. Frying the meat over a quick fire until browned creates flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale meat simmered in the pie will taste flat and greyish.
“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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