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Meat Pie

A layered pie of finely chopped meat, crackers, butter, milk, and gravy, baked with eggs and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat 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.

Layer the meat and crackers

  1. Layer chopped meat in the bottom of a dish and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Add a layer of powdered crackers mixed with bits of butter and a little milk.

  3. Continue layering with meat and crackers, moistening with gravy or broth.

  4. Spread a thick layer of seasoned crackers mixed with milk and beaten egg on top.

  5. Dot with butter, cover with a tin pan, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30-45 minutes.

  6. Remove the cover 10 minutes before serving to brown.

Make the alternative broth filling

  1. For a different version, simmer bones in 1 pint of cold water for 1 hour, then strain.

  2. Add chopped onion, chili sauce, salt, and chopped meat to the broth and simmer briefly.

  3. Thicken with flour mixed in water, boil once, and cool.

  4. Layer this mixture in a pudding dish with sliced hard-boiled eggs and boiled potatoes.

  5. Repeat the layering, cover with pastry, make an opening in the center, and bake for 40 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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Chopped meat
Forms the savory body of the pie as the main filling.
Powdered crackers
Soak up moisture and bind the layers into a soft, cohesive filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and keeps the layers tender.
Beaten egg
Sets when baked, helping the top layer firm up and hold together.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth, cohesive gravy-like filling.
Chili sauce
Adds sweetness, acidity, and spice to the broth-based filling.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour mixed in water, boil once, and cool.. Flour must be mixed smoothly with cold water before adding so it does not clump, and boiling activates its starch to thicken the broth properly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, butter, milk, egg, sauce, flour. 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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