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Beefsteak Pie

A pie filled with seasoned beefsteak pieces, butter, flour, and water, baked with crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Beefsteak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the steaks

  1. Beat the steaks lightly.

  2. Season the steaks with pepper and salt.

  3. Place bits of butter over the surface of the steaks.

  4. Dredge the steaks with flour.

  5. Roll the steaks.

  6. Cut the rolled steaks into 2-inch pieces.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a tin basin with pie crust.

  2. Add the steak pieces to the basin.

  3. Nearly fill the basin with water.

  4. Add the small piece of butter to the water.

  5. Season with additional pepper and salt.

  6. Lay skewers across the basin.

  7. Cover with a top crust.

  8. Cut a slit in the top crust.

  9. Pinch the edges of the crust to seal.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour at 400°F (200°C).

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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

Steaks
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender as the pie cooks in its juices.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and keeping the meat moist as it bakes.
Flour
Dusted on the steaks, it helps thicken the cooking liquid into a light gravy.
Pie crust
Forms the lining and top that enclose the meat and steam while baking.

The step that matters

Seal the top crust. Pinching the edges tightly keeps steam and juices inside, so the meat cooks in moist heat and the liquid thickens rather than leaking out.

“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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