Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Meat Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the filling
Cook the onions and potatoes in a pot until tender, about 30 minutes.
Add the rice (or other vegetables) and cook until nearly dry.
Stir in the left-over meat and gravy, mixing well.
Bake and serve
Transfer the mixture to a deep baking dish and cover with biscuit crust.
Make an incision in the crust for steam to escape.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is golden brown.
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.
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together428 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Rice + biscuittop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together109 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 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
- Onions
- Soften as they cook, adding sweetness and savory depth to the filling.
- Potatoes
- Become tender and starchy, giving the filling body and substance.
- Rice
- Absorbs moisture as it cooks, thickening the filling so it holds together.
- Left-over meat
- Provides the main savory protein and flavor of the filling.
- Gravy
- Adds moisture and savory flavor that binds the filling together.
- Biscuit crust
- Bakes to a golden, crisp top that seals in the filling.
The step that matters
Cook the rice until nearly dry. If the filling still holds too much water, it will make the crust soggy from below and loosen the mixture. Cooking off surface moisture before adding gravy helps the pie set when baked.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, rice, meat, biscuit):
- Asparagusfits better
- Mustardfits about as well
- Welsh onionfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, rice, meat, biscuit. 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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