Name: Meat Pie
Ingredients: cold-cooked meat, thinly sliced; gravy or tomato sauce; coarse sea salt; mashed potatoes; 1 beaten egg

Why it works: Tomato and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cut the cold-cooked meat into thin slices and remove all gristle.

Assemble

Place the meat in a baking dish and cover with gravy or tomato sauce.
Season well with coarse sea salt.
Spread a layer of mashed potatoes over the meat.
Brush the top with the beaten egg.

Bake

Bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + tomatotop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,438 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold-cooked meat: Forms the main filling and provides the savoury flavour of the pie.
Gravy or tomato sauce: Adds moisture so the meat stays juicy rather than drying in the oven.
Mashed potatoes: Forms a soft topping that insulates the filling and browns in the oven.
Beaten egg: Helps the top brown and gives the potato layer a glossy, golden finish.