Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tinned Beef 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.
Prepare the filling
Fry the sliced onions in a pan until brown.
In a pot, cover the sliced potatoes with water and boil for 15 minutes.
Add the browned onions and tinned meat to the pot and simmer for 20 minutes.
Season with pepper and salt to taste.
Make the crust
In a bowl, sift the flour and add 2 tablespoons of salt.
Rub in the dripping or lard until well combined.
Add cold water gradually to form a stiff paste and work it together.
Flour a surface, turn out the paste, and roll it to ½ inch thickness.
Assemble and bake
Place the rolled paste in baking pans, covering the filling and making a hole in each crust.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes, or until the crust is brown.
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.
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + meattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together786 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Bulk the filling and hold moisture while simmering with the onions and meat.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the pastry its structure once water is added.
- Dripping or lard
- Rubbed into flour to coat particles, shortening the gluten and giving a tender, flaky crust.
- Tinned meat
- Provides the main savoury flavour and substance of the filling.
- Onions
- Browning them first builds sweetness and savoury depth in the filling.
The step that matters
Adding the cold water to the flour and fat. Adding water gradually and working only until a stiff paste forms keeps the gluten from over-developing, which would make the crust tough instead of short.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, meat, pepper, flour):
- Spinachfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, meat, pepper, 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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