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A Beefsteak Pie

A pie of stewed lean rump steak, onions, parsley, thyme, white pepper, Worcestershire sauce, ham, and hard‑boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

A Beefsteak Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the beef

  1. Cut the lean rump steak into strips three inches long and an inch wide.

  2. Put the strips into enough boiling water to not quite cover the meat, and simmer very slowly for half an hour.

  3. Add a tablespoonful of parsley chopped fine, a large teaspoonful of sweet thyme, half a teaspoonful of white pepper, and a quarter of a pint of sliced onions.

  4. Stew together until the meat is perfectly tender.

  5. Rub smooth a tablespoonful of corn starch into the stew, stir until creamy, and add a little salt and a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the meat in a deep pudding-dish with alternate layers of cold ham sliced thin and sliced hard-boiled eggs; seven or eight eggs will be required.

  2. Add a little grated nutmeg, cover with pastry, and bake for half an hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

859Calories
48 gProtein
23 gFat
110 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 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.

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides the main meat; slow simmering breaks down its connective tissue so it becomes tender.
Corn starch
Thickens the stew into a creamy gravy as it heats, binding the filling.
Onions
Adds savory sweetness and aroma that deepens the stew's flavour.
Eggs
Sliced hard-boiled eggs add richness and a firm texture between the meat layers.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds tangy, savory depth that rounds out the meat flavour.
Thyme
Contributes a warm, herbal aroma to the stew.

The step that matters

Smoothing the cornstarch into the stew. Cornstarch must be rubbed smooth before it goes in, or it forms lumps. Starch thickens only when heated in liquid, so stirring until creamy gives an even, glossy gravy rather than a patchy one.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, thyme, onion, corn, sauce, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, thyme, onion, corn, sauce, egg, nutmeg. 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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