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 ↓
A Beef-steak Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the paste
Make a pastry paste by mixing a pound of butter with two pounds of sifted flour. Divide the paste in half.
Line the bottom and sides of a deep dish with one sheet of the paste, after buttering the dish.
Fill the pie
Prepare two pounds of the best beef steak, cutting it thin and beating it, omitting bone and fat.
Season the steak with pepper and salt.
Spread a layer of steak at the bottom of the pie, then a layer of sliced potato, and a few small bits of butter rolled in flour.
Add another layer of meat, potato, etc., until the dish is full.
Optionally add mushrooms, chopped clams, or oysters, leaving out hard parts.
If clams or oysters are used, moisten the other ingredients with a little of their liquor.
If not, pour in half a pint of cold water at the end, or less if the pie is small.
Bake and serve
Cover the pie with the other sheet of paste as a lid, notch the edges, and reserve a little paste to make a flower or tulip to stick in the slit at the top.
Bake in a quick oven for an hour and a quarter, or longer, proportionally to its size.
Serve hot.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Water | not in our table | 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.
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 pastry paste that encloses and holds the filling together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flakiness to the pastry and melts into the filling for moisture.
- Beef steak
- Provides the main meat filling, which becomes tender and flavourful as it bakes.
- Potato (in the method)
- Layers with the meat to add body and absorb the juices as the pie cooks.
The step that matters
Baking the pie in a quick oven. A hot oven sets the pastry and browns it before the meat and potatoes overcook. Baking the full time also lets the thick meat become tender, so a shortened bake can leave it tough.
“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.
You might also like
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes
Corned Beef87 recipes
Beef Broth67 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.