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Potato Pasty

A baked dish of beef and potato filling covered with a potato crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Potato Pasty

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped beef with pepper, drawn butter, parsley, and onion pickle.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and cover with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

Make the potato crust

  1. In another bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, milk, and butter until smooth.

  2. Gradually add flour until the mixture is soft but manageable.

  3. Roll out the potato mixture into a thick sheet and cover the beef mixture, sealing the edges.

Bake

  1. Bake until 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.

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. Parsley + potatotop 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled beef
Forms the savory filling that makes up the bulk of the pasty.
Mashed potatoes
Provide the soft, pliable body of the crust that encloses the filling.
Flour
Gives the potato dough enough structure to be rolled and sealed.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and moisture to the beef filling.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add a firm, mild layer of richness over the beef filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the potato crust. Edges that are not pressed firmly together can open during baking, letting the filling leak out and dry or scorch. A dough that is soft but manageable seals best.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, butter, parsley, egg, potato, milk. 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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