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Tamale Pie

A baked dish of seasoned ground beef, raisins, olives, and cornmeal topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tamale Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the meat filling

  1. Combine the ground beef, raisins, olives, salt, pepper, and red pepper in a pot.

  2. Stew the mixture until tender.

  3. Thicken the meat mixture with 1 tablespoon of cornmeal.

Make the cornmeal mixture

  1. Stir 1.5 cups of cornmeal into 2 cups of boiling water in a separate pot.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of shortening to the mixture.

  3. Cook until it reaches a mushy consistency.

Assemble and bake

  1. Grease a baking dish.

  2. Line the dish with about two-thirds of the cornmeal mixture.

  3. Pour the meat mixture into the dish.

  4. Cover with the remaining cornmeal mixture.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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.

  1. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Beef + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,220 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground beef
Provides the main meaty filling and savory flavor once stewed until tender.
Cornmeal
Thickens the meat filling and forms the mushy cornmeal layers that set as the pie bakes.
Raisins
Add sweetness that balances the savory meat and peppers.
Shortening
Adds fat that gives the cornmeal layer a softer, richer texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornmeal mixture to a mushy consistency. Cornmeal stirred into boiling water must cook long enough for its starch to gelatinize; if undercooked it stays gritty and will not set into a sliceable layer.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, olive, pepper, butter):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, olive, pepper, butter. 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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