Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Raised Beef Steak 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.
Cut the skin from the fat of the beef steaks and beat them with a chopper.
Cut the steaks into medium-sized pieces.
In a pan, cook the steak pieces with butter, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and chopped eschalots until half done, then let them cool.
Blanch the oysters, strain them, and reserve the oyster liquor.
Prepare a pie crust and layer the steak and oysters alternately in the dish.
Cover the pie, decorate it, and bake at 400°F (200°C).
Before serving, add a good sauce made from the oyster liquor and ketchup.
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.
-
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Oyster + ketchuptop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together318 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
You might also like
The 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.
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes
Corned Beef87 recipes