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Beef-steak Pie

A layered pastry pie with beef steak, potatoes, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Beef-steak Pie

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 ↓

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a deep dish and line it with a sheet of pastry, covering the bottom, sides, and edge.

  3. Cut the beef steak into small, thin pieces, about the size of your palm.

  4. Beat the meat with a rolling pin to make it juicy and tender.

Layer and assemble

  1. Layer the meat in the dish, seasoning with salt, pepper, and nutmeg if desired.

  2. Add a layer of sliced potatoes and a small piece of butter on top of the meat.

  3. Repeat layering meat and potatoes until the dish is full, finishing with a layer of meat on top.

  4. Pour in a little water to keep the pie moist.

  5. Cover the pie with another sheet of pastry, trimming the edges.

  6. Notch the top crust with a knife and decorate with pastry shapes if desired.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms the main filling and, when cooked, provides the savory meaty flavor of the pie.
Pastry
Encloses the filling and forms the crisp, golden crust during baking.
Potatoes
Add bulk and soft starchy body between the layers of meat.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that enhances browning and flavor in the layers.

The step that matters

Beating the meat. Pounding the meat breaks down its fibers so it cooks more tender, and the thin pieces help it cook through within the baking time.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beef, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, onion, potato):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, onion, potato. 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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