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Steak and Kidney Pie

A savory pie filled with steak, kidney, and pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Steak and Kidney Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix 2 teaspoons of flour with some pepper and salt on a plate.

  2. Dip each piece of steak lightly in the flour.

  3. Roll a piece of kidney and a piece of fat alternately in the slices of meat.

  4. Pile the meat mixture high in a dish and pour in the water or stock.

Assemble the pie

  1. Make a shortcrust pastry as per standard instructions.

  2. Wet the edge of the dish.

  3. Line the wet edge with a strip of pastry.

  4. Cover the dish with pastry.

  5. Trim the edges.

  6. Cut a small hole in the center.

  7. Decorate the top with leaves cut from pastry trimmings.

  8. Brush the top with water.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 hours.

  2. Once the crust has some color, cover it with a piece of paper rubbed with dripping.

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.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Steak
Provides the main meat body and rich savory flavor as it cooks slowly in the filling.
Kidneys
Add a deep, earthy meaty flavor and tender texture to the filling.
Flour
Lightly coats the steak, helping it brown and thickening the juices into a gravy.
Dripping
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the pastry and paper brown.
Water or stock
Provides moisture so the meat cooks gently and forms a gravy under the crust.

The step that matters

Covering the crust with greased paper. Once the crust has colored, a paper cover shields it from over-browning while the filling finishes cooking slowly, so the pastry bakes through without burning.

“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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