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Hot Pot Pie

A layered pie of cold beef or mutton, onions, and potatoes, baked slowly with water or stock and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hot Pot Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Slice the cold beef or mutton thinly.

  2. Slice the onions and potatoes.

Layer and bake

  1. In a pie dish, layer the meat, potatoes, and onions, seasoning each layer with pepper, salt, and chopped parsley.

  2. Repeat the layers until the dish is full.

  3. Add about ½ pint of water or stock and a little butter.

  4. Cover with another dish and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold beef or mutton
Provides the cooked meat that forms the filling's main body and flavour.
Potatoes
Bake down into tender layers that add starch and body to the filling.
Onions
Soften during slow baking, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the filling.
Water or stock
Creates steam and liquid that gently cooks the layers and keeps them moist.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that enhances flavour and moistness.

The step that matters

Cover with another dish and bake slowly. Covering traps steam so the potatoes cook through and the meat stays moist. A slow oven gives the starches time to soften gently without drying or toughening the meat.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, potato, 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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